Bangladesh’s youth are more anxious about economic uncertainty, conflict and inequality than any of their South Asian peers, registering higher worry than young people even in war-torn Afghanistan, crisis-stricken Pakistan or neighbouring India. The country is simultaneously navigating the most decisive phase of its demographic dividend, which researchers believe could extend to 2040.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) recently published its “Lives, Choices and Futures — Demographic Futures Survey,” polling individuals aged 18 to 39 years across 73 countries. It found 67.2 percent of Bangladeshi respondents voiced concern over those three issues — the highest proportion in the region.

In Bhutan, 66.3 percent shared the same fears, while the rate stood at 54.7 percent in Afghanistan, 53.2 percent in Pakistan, 47.4 percent in India and 45 percent in Sri Lanka. South Asian counties Nepal and the Maldives were not covered in the study.

Globally, Bangladesh ranked tenth among the 73 nations on this measure. Costa Rica topped the list at 70.7 percent, and the Philippines, at 70.4 percent, was the only Asian country ahead of it. Against this backdrop, Bangladesh is marking World Youth Skills Day today, July 15.

Under Bangladesh’s National Youth Policy, youth is defined as the 18-to-35 age bracket. The 2022 census showed 63.67 percent of the population within that group — a cohort officials see as the country’s most powerful engine for economic growth, productivity and innovation.

But analysts warn that without modern education, up-to-date skills training and sufficient employment, that dividend risks turning into a demographic burden. “If the young are not turned into skilled human resources, the demographic dividend will eventually become a demographic pressure,” they said.

Fahim Mashroor, chief executive of the online job portal Bdjobs, believes Bangladesh drifted into its demographic window without any coherent plan for its young people — the very failure that analysts warn could turn a dividend into a burden.

“Our policymakers simply lack the capability for long-term planning. We made no advance preparation to skill our youth,” he told Bonik Barta. “Politicians don’t think long-term, but the civil service was supposed to. It never developed that mindset either.”

He said massive sums had been poured into training schemes over the past 10 to 15 years and would likely continue to flow, yet no lasting impact was visible. “We still can’t ensure internationally benchmarked training,” he added.

Data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) show the country’s universities churned out 838,329 honours graduates between 2017 and 2022, along with 998,968 pass-course graduates and 73,042 diploma-holders in technical and specialised disciplines.

Johannes Zutt, the World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, said in March that nearly half of working-age Bangladeshis had not found a job over the previous decade. Young women, he noted, faced even steeper barriers. Over the same period, 14 million young people entered the labour market while only 8.7 million jobs were created.

Ariful Islam’s experience puts a face on the mismatch. He earned a postgraduate degree from Jagannath University, spent three years chasing a government job and then shifted to the private sector. Two years on, he remains without work.

“What I studied at university has very little relevance in the job market. The demand here is for practical skills,” he said. “I feel I simply wasted five or six years of university. That education is of no use now.”

Nazneen K Chowdhury, executive chairman of the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA), stressed that skills training must carry the same weight as academic education. She said the state had invested heavily in human capital for 55 years but had not reaped the expected return.

“There was a lack of coordination, overlaps in policy and budgets, and inconsistency in discharging responsibilities,” she said. “Had each actor fulfilled its designated role and the coordinating bodies effectively monitored, supervised and harmonised efforts, we would have seen far less budgetary waste, policy duplication and administrative inefficiency.”

The UNFPA survey, which polled 108,926 young internet users across 73 countries, found that 90 percent rank economic security as their single most important life goal. Financial stability also dominates major life decisions: 81 percent deem it essential before marriage, 88 percent before having children and 87 percent consider a permanent job non-negotiable.

That global anxiety is sharply mirrored in Bangladesh’s domestic labour data. Nearly 10 million people cannot find work matching their qualifications, according to a Labour Force Survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. University graduates account for 13.5 percent of the total unemployed and higher-secondary certificate holders 7.13 percent — meaning one in five of all jobless individuals in the country holds at least a higher-secondary qualification. Among unemployed people aged 15 to 29 years, nearly 29 percent are graduates. In effect, one in three graduates in that age band is out of work.

The government maintains it is responding with multiple skills programmes. Youth and Sports Secretary Md Mahbub-Ul-Alam told Bonik Barta: “Through the Department of Youth Development, we are currently providing both institutional and non-institutional training in 83 trades. Institutional training in electronics, electrical work, housekeeping and other subjects is running at 73 centres across the country, alongside non-institutional training at the sub-district level.”

He said a World Bank-backed project named “EARN” will train 700,000 people over the next 30 months, delivered through service providers. The contract is scheduled to be signed on Thursday. The secretary added that a separate project targeting artificial intelligence skills, to be run by private development organisations, is also underway.