The draft of the directive, which will soon be forwarded to the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management for approval, has explicitly asked labor information centers in 14 places across the country to create a database of unemployed people and identify vacant positions in the job market which could absorb them. 

“We hope this will largely benefit unemployed youths, who do not have access to information on vacant job positions and help them find jobs that matches their skills and needs,” Man Bahadur Bishwokarma, director general of the Department of Labor, told Republica.

 

Currently, around 350,000 people enter the labor market every year. Out of this, only around 40,000 find jobs, according to estimates. The rest either look for employment opportunities abroad, find work in informal sector or continue to stay jobless.

 

Once the directive comes into effect, labor information centers throughout the country will start compiling data on the number of unemployed youths along with information on their academic qualification, work experience, skills and type of jobs they are looking for. 

 

“This will be done by asking unemployed people to fill online forms. But in places where there is no access to Internet, labor offices will be asked to fill the forms on behalf of those who want to get their names listed,” Bishwokarma said, explaining, this is an entirely “voluntary work”, and there will not be any provision to make it mandatory for jobless people to give away personal information.

 

Once the labor information centers gather this data, it will be put up on the department´s site so that employers can refer to it and select people they want to hire.

 

“However, if employers do not want to take the burden of finding people themselves, they can ask the information centers to send a list of job-seeking applicants, whose qualifications and skills match the company´s requirements,” Bishwokarma said.

 

But once again, this is an entirely voluntary job and the upcoming directive will not bind employers to hire employees from the pool of jobless people created by the labor department, Bishwokarma clarified, adding, the government will nonetheless ask employers to provide information on vacant positions in their firms so as to keep tab on jobs available in the market.

 

To check the extent of support that the government will receive from the private sector in this regard and test effectiveness of the program, the labor department has already announced plans to launch pilot projects in Kathmandu and Biratnagar, where labor information centers have already been asked to coordinate with employers and chambers of commerce to locate vacant job positions.

 

“Once the projects take off in these two most populous as well as heavily industrialized cities, the government will implement similar projects in 12 other places in the country,” Bishwokarma said.

But, according to Bishwokarma, the information centers will not limit its role to playing matchmaker between employers and unemployed people. "They will also be asked to coordinate with microfinance institutions and state agencies like Youth and Small Entrepreneurs Self-employment Fund (YSESF) so as to generate self-employment opportunities," he said.

 

In this regard, the information centers will offer free-of-cost counseling services to unemployed people and refer them to microfinance institutions or the YSESF from where they can obtain credit to start their own businesses.

 

To make this program effective, the labor department has decided to form coordination committees in all 14 places and a central coordination committee in Kathmandu. 

 

“These committees will include representatives from employers´ organizations and officials from women and industries departments, Poverty Alleviation Fund, the YSESF and Council for Technical Education & Vocational Training, among others,” Bishwokarma said.