The government is preparing to issue guidelines to deal with unemployment in the local labour market. Based on this strategy, the Department of Labour will operate an employment exchange service through which youths will be able to jobs and employers will be able to hire workers.

As part of the effort to determine the precise unemployment situation, the department has resumed collecting information about jobless youths through its Employment Information Centres established in all 14 zones of the country. These centres, set up according to a programme included in the national budget of fiscal 2008-09, have not been as active as expected; and their functions have been limited to gathering data about jobless youths.

“We have collected information about 30,000 unemployed youths across the country,” said Man Bahadur BK, director general of the department. He added that since they had been collecting information about domestic employers and studying the trend in foreign job markets to operate an employment exchange, it would take two to three months to bring out the guidelines.

Every year, an estimated 400,000 jobseekers enter the labour market, among whom a large number leave for foreign employment. Many youths are unemployed because of lack of opportunities and a slowdown in the economy.

Krishna Hari Pushkar Karna, spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, said that the government would develop the Employment Information Centres into job forums for employment exchange where employers can place vacancy notices and jobseekers can post their biodata. “Employers’ organisations have agreed in principle for institutional development of such forums,” he added.

In 2006, the government had introduced a Labour and Employment Policy envisaging the operation of employment exchange service in a comprehensive, coordinated and effective manner. It had also planned to continually disseminate information about employment opportunities by posting it on a functional national website. However, the government has not been able to work effectively.

A senor official at the department said that it had taken a long time to set up centres in all the zones and that jobless youth were reluctant to provide information about themselves as there was no guarantee of being hired. “Since the department is actively working to collect information as it plans to operate an employment exchange service, we are hopeful that this time more youths and employers’ organisations will respond,” the official added.

Published on: 26 June 2011 | The Kathmandu Post