Publication: Understanding the Challenges and Constraints of Bhutanese Youth in Accessing Employment Opportunities
Loading...
Date
2025-01-09
ISSN
Published
2025-01-09
Author(s)
Choki, Tshering
Editor(s)
Abstract
Youths are a vital part of the economic workforce, but they face unique challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing world. Despite being tech-savvy and socially conscious, many youths struggle to access the labor market due to lack of experience, job opportunities, and job security. Youth and female unemployment is a major issue globally, impacting economic welfare and growth. Addressing this can improve productivity, stability, and social cohesion. Studies show that youth unemployment in Bhutan is particularly high, with female youths being more vulnerable due to limited resources, education, and workplace discrimination. The 2022 National Labor Force Survey reveals a significant rise in youth unemployment, with females at 7.9 percent and males at 4.4 percent. The agriculture sector remains a key economic activity, employing 49.2 percent of the labor force. This study aims to understand the challenges and constraints faced by women and youth in accessing employment opportunities.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Choki, Tshering; Etang, Alvin. 2025. Understanding the Challenges and Constraints of Bhutanese Youth in Accessing Employment Opportunities. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42646 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication The Challenge of Youth Employment in Sri Lanka(World Bank, 2010)Sri Lanka has been regarded as a model of a country with successful social policies, yet for decades it has faced major challenges in providing employment and satisfying other aspirations of youth. Although the labor force has become more educated, and this trend is particularly marked for youth, the main source of employment for both youth and adults remains the informal sector. Moreover, the importance of the informal sector as a source of employment has increased since the mid-1990s. On the positive side, unemployment declined in last decades, particularly for youth. The Sri Lankan government has continually acted on various fronts to address the youth unemployment problem. It has tried to improve and modernize Sri Lanka's general education system, which has long been criticized as too academic, and to increase the accessibility of training so as to promote the employability youth leaving school. Other actions included strengthening entrepreneurship programs and introducing career guidance and counseling and improving labor market information to help young people in their job searches and to guide human resource planning. In 2007, the government developed the National Action Plan for youth employment, built, for the first time, on a coherent youth employment policy framework and deriving an encompassing and consistent set of policy recommendations. The plan was based on in-depth analysis of Sri Lanka's labor market, provided via a series of background papers undertaken under the auspices of the Youth Employment Network (YEN). To provide the richness and comprehensiveness of this analysis in its totality, these papers, updated and revised, are collected in the present book. This book offers a wealth of valuable advice to the government and other stakeholders to achieve this goal. By exploiting the full potential of the youth, not only will their talent, aspirations, and energy be harnessed to advance economic growth, but also the existing inequities will be reduced and, hopefully in the longer run, eliminated.Publication Navigating Labor Market Challenges with a Focus on Youth and Women’s Employment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-02)Mongolia’s working age population is young, educated, and predominantly urban - creating a pool of well-educated young people living in urban centers. But Mongolia struggles to utilize its human resources in an effective and inclusive way. Labor force participation and employment rates are low and declining, while unemployment, including long-term unemployment, is high. Those who work often work excessively long hours. The share of the working age population with tertiary education is high - and compares well with that of high-income countries - but returns to tertiary (and upper secondary) education have declined in recent years. Women with tertiary degrees outnumber men, but the gender gap in labor force participation remains high and women are also still underrepresented in the higher-paying science and engineering fields. School-to-work transitions are slow, resulting in large numbers of graduates, especially better educated women, who are NEET (not in employment, education or training). Growth in real wages is considerable but lags the gains in labor productivity. Disparities exist by gender, age, education, and location, making certain groups, including women and youth, particularly vulnerable to labor market inequities. With the old-age dependency ratio set to rise in the 2040s, Mongolia's demographic window will soon be closing. To promote economic growth and harness its demographic dividend, it will be critical for Mongolia to better utilize available labor resources through increased employment, reduced labor market disparities, and higher productivity.Publication Navigating Labor Market Challenges with a Focus on Youth and Women’s Employment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-25)Mongolia’s working age population is young, educated, and predominantly urban – creating a pool of well-educated young people living in urban centers. But Mongolia struggles to utilize its human resources in an effective and inclusive way. Labor force participation and employment rates are low and declining, while unemployment, including long-term unemployment, is high. Those who work often work excessively long hours. The share of the working age population with tertiary education is high – and compares well with that of high-income countries – but returns to tertiary (and upper secondary) education have declined in recent years. Women with tertiary degrees outnumber men, but the gender gap in labor force participation remains high and women are also still underrepresented in the higher-paying science and engineering fields. School-to-work transitions are slow, resulting in large numbers of graduates, especially better educated women, who are NEET (not in employment, education or training). Growth in real wages is considerable but lags the gains in labor productivity. Disparities exist by gender, age, education, and location, making certain groups, including women and youth, particularly vulnerable to labor market inequities. With the old-age dependency ratio set to rise in the 2040s, Mongolia's demographic window will soon be closing. To promote economic growth and harness its demographic dividend, it will be critical for Mongolia to better utilize available labor resources through increased employment, reduced labor market disparities, and higher productivity.Publication Challenges for Youth Employment in Pakistan : Are They Youth-Specific?(2011-01-01)This paper analyzes the patterns of and the challenges for youth employment in Pakistan and examines whether these challenges are youth-specific. Using the 2005/2006 Labor Force Survey, the analysis includes determinants of unemployment, determinants of working in the formal sector, rate of return on education, and determinants of working hours. The paper finds that many of the challenges to youth employment in Pakistan are not youth-specific. Policies should thus emphasize broader labor market reforms, even in the context of tackling youth employment issues. Still, some challenges are youth-specific, such as a higher youth unemployment rate and insufficient returns to better-educated youth. To address these challenges, more youth-specific interventions are needed.Publication Good Jobs for Angolan Youth Opportunities Challenges and Policy Directions - Policy Brief(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-19)This brief is intended to lay out a policy agenda for more good jobs, especially for youth, to inform the government of Angola’s policy debates. It provides a summary of the main analytical findings, messages, and policy suggestions presented in a detailed technical report. It takes a broad view of jobs, including an assessment of the macroeconomic and demographic trends, the role of the private sector in generating jobs, and the challenges facing the labor force with a particular emphasis on youth. Based on this analysis, it turns to policy by outlining the current programs offered by the national government in Angola to address the jobs and employment challenges and provides suggestions on policies that the government of Angola could consider adopting, with a particular emphasis on addressing the needs of youth.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication China Economic Update, December 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth has moderated since the second quarter of 2024, owing to subdued domestic demand. The government has responded to the domestic demand slowdown with incremental policy stimulus, balancing short-term growth support with longer term de-risking objectives. While monetary policy has been eased, its impact has been constrained by subdued credit demand. Despite lower down payment ratios and mortgage rates, state-financed purchase of housing inventories, and liquidity support to developers, the property sector remains weak in the face of dampened housing demand. The outlook is subject to domestic and external risks. Domestically, a more persistent downturn in the property sector could further temper investment and local government revenues. Tighter local government financing, in turn, can lead to under-execution of fiscal policies, dampening growth. China’s growth slowdown is partly driven by structural factors, such as structurally low consumption, high property developer and local government debt, and an aging population. Addressing these challenges requires structural reforms to address vulnerabilities and sustain growth. Key priorities include (i) fostering domestic demand by strengthening social safety nets, redirecting fiscal resources to social spending, and promoting market-oriented reforms to encourage private sector investment; (ii) supporting a sustainable property sector recovery by addressing shortcomings in the property financing mechanism and resolving the sector’s debt overhang; and (iii) managing local government financial risks through reform in the fiscal framework and medium-term subnational fiscal consolidation.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication At Your Service?: The Promise of Services-led Growth in Uzbekistan(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-07)In Uzbekistan, the services sector accounts for more than half of all jobs and has been central to the process of structural transformation over the past three decades. In the past decade, the growth of Uzbekistan’s services exports has lagged behind its manufactures' exports while FDI greenfield announcements to both sectors have been even. The growth of the services sector in the past five years was driven by social services, mostly reflecting increased public spending. This report groups the services sector into four categories based on their skill intensity, the extent of their linkages with other sectors, and their tradability in international markets: low-skilled consumer services, low-skilled enabling services , global innovator services. Of these groups, social services accounted for three-fourths of employment growth in the services sector between 2017–2022. These services also experienced relatively high rates of labor productivity growth, which was largely driven by higher public spending on wages and salaries.Publication The Markets and Competition Policy Assessment Toolkit(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-09)The markets and competition policy assessment toolkit (MCPAT) is a guide for understanding how policy can positively shape markets and address market failures that ultimately affect micro- and macroeconomic development issues. The MCPAT aims to support policymakers, competition authorities, and development finance institutions in realizing the advantages of competitive and well-functioning markets by setting the right conditions for firms to improve their economic performance and for markets to allocate resources efficiently. Competitive and well-functioning markets do not just benefit consumers, - they benefit entire economies as they promote productivity, innovation, efficiency, and consumer choice. The goal is not simply to increase the number of firms in a market or to restrict market power but to create an environment where competition can thrive, firms can innovate, and markets can function optimally. The structure of this toolkit follows the steps to conduct an MCPAT analysis in a specific sector or market. Part I provides an overview of key concepts that set the basis for conducting the MCPAT analysis and covers the first step of the MCPAT. Part II focuses on diagnosing market issues. Part III is about how to fix markets.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.