Highlights:

• Private-sector hiring has nearly stalled amid prolonged economic pressures.
• Around 21 lakh people enter Bangladesh’s job market annually.
• Only 1,485 government posts are available for 21 lakh applicants.
• Private-sector job postings declined significantly amid business uncertainty.
• Many companies are reducing staff and leaving vacancies unfilled.
• Experts warn Bangladesh needs stronger private-sector job creation

TDS Desk:

The rush for government jobs in Bangladesh has seldom lost its intensity. If anything, the scramble appears to have intensified further.

With private sector jobs contracting, more than 21 lakh people are now competing for just 1,485 positions in the Department of Social Services – a scale of demand that has left the authorities struggling even to arrange the recruitment examination.

The extraordinary number of applicants comes against a labour market that economists have already described in stark terms. In August last year, a research report on Bangladesh’s economic realities and policy options characterised the employment situation as an “employment emergency”.

Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) Chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman, who presented the report, later said at an event that unemployment in Bangladesh had reached an “epidemic level”.

A year on, there is little sign that those pressures have eased. The IMF recently said about 36% of young people with postsecondary education in Bangladesh are unemployed.

Against that backdrop, the response to a government recruitment circular offers a striking glimpse of how intensely jobseekers are competing for the relatively limited number of secure positions available in the public sector.

The Department of Social Services sought applications in May for 1,485 posts across 52 categories, spanning Grades 13 to 20 and including both permanent and temporary positions.

By the time applications closed, as many as 21.23 lakh people had applied – roughly 1,430 applicants competing for every available role. The ratio is exceptionally high even by the standards of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination, the country’s premier public service recruitment test.

The online application process ran from 2 June to 23 June, with candidates paying fees of between Tk50 and Tk100 through state-owned mobile operator Teletalk.

Now, three months after applications closed, the sheer volume of candidates has created another problem: the authorities are struggling to arrange a recruitment examination.

“We have sought approval from the Ministry of Public Administration for a proposal on how to complete the recruitment process for the 1,485 vacant posts as quickly as possible, given that 21.23 lakh people have applied,” Mohammad Abu Yusuf, secretary of the social welfare ministry, told The Business Standard.

The unprecedented number of applicants has created major logistical and financial hurdles, from securing examination centres and printing question papers to appointing invigilators and evaluating answer scripts.

The Department of Social Services is seeking guidance from the Ministry of Public Administration and the Ministry of Finance on how the examination should be conducted and how candidates should be screened.

Authorities yet to set exam date

An official from the Department of Social Services, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that accommodating more than 21 lakh candidates poses an extraordinary challenge.

The Department is currently consulting the ministry on how many candidates to shortlist for subsequent written and oral tests following an initial screening. The overall recruitment process is expected to comprise written, practical (where relevant), and oral examinations.

Final test dates and centre allocations will be announced once the ministry approves the proposed procedure and budget.

“We are preparing to conduct the examination after receiving the applications so that we can complete the recruitment process as quickly and transparently as possible,” Shah Mohammad Mahboob, director general of the Department of Social Services, said.

“We have sought the ministry’s assistance in deciding what needs to be done because of the large number of applications,” he said.

More applicants than BCS exams

The number of applications for the Social Services Department’s vacancies is substantially higher than the number recorded in each of the five most recent general BCS examinations.

The 50th BCS, the most recent examination, received around 2.90 lakh applications for 2,150 posts, the lowest number of applicants among the five most recent BCS examinations.

The 49th BCS received 3.12 lakh applications, while the 47th, 46th and 45th BCS examinations received 3.74 lakh, 3.37 lakh and 3.46 lakh applications, respectively.

The 48th BCS was a special examination held for the recruitment of doctors and is therefore not directly comparable with the general BCS examinations.

The applicant pool for the Social Services Department’s recruitment is also larger than the total number of candidates who sat for the 2026 Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations nationwide, which stood at over 18.57 lakh, according to official figures.

478 office assistants among 1,485 vacancies

The recruitment circular covers posts requiring educational qualifications ranging from Secondary School Certificate level to a bachelor’s degree.

The largest number of vacancies, 478, is for office assistants under grade 20, for which an SSC qualification is required.

The department will also recruit 312 social workers at the union level. Their responsibilities include implementing government social safety-net programmes, including preparing and verifying lists of eligible beneficiaries for old-age allowances, allowances for widows and women deserted by their husbands, disability allowances and educational stipends for financially disadvantaged people with disabilities.

Other positions include teachers, head assistants, computer operators, trade instructors, supervisors, technical trainers and office assistants.

Symptom of private sector weakness

Economists and employment analysts view the record application volume as a reflection of the public sector’s growing appeal against the backdrop of a sluggish private sector.

Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), noted that competitive public salaries, job security, and social prestige drive candidates towards government roles while private sector expansion stalls.

“The intense competition for government jobs, despite the limited number of openings, gives a misleading impression of broader economic health,” Dr Moazzem said. He added that while robust corporate expansion would typically absorb jobseekers, sluggish investment and global market uncertainties have constrained private sector hiring and wage growth.

Dr Moazzem also urged the government to review whether all 1,485 posts are strictly necessary. “The government should assess whether these positions are genuinely required. Many roles are filled simply because a vacancy exists, despite low productivity,” he said, recommending productivity assessments similar to corporate benchmarks.

The weakness in private-sector hiring is also reflected in the lack of fresh investment. Private-sector bank credit growth rose slightly to 4.62% in July, from a record-low 4.47% in June, but remained below 5% for a fifth consecutive month as an acute energy crisis and weak business demand continued to discourage new investment.

The July figure was still well below Bangladesh Bank’s target of 6.80% through December. Private-sector credit growth stood at 4.98% in May, 4.75% in April and 4.72% in March.

Last year, the Bangladesh Employers’ Federation (BEF) estimated that the workforce of its member companies had shrunk by 3% over the previous two years. Including temporary and seasonal workers, the contraction could be as high as 5%.

The weakening demand for private-sector workers is also visible in recruitment data. AKM Fahim Mashroor, co-founder and CEO of Bdjobs.com, in June 2025 said job postings on the platform fell by 10% in the first 11 months of FY25 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Fahim Mashroor recently observed that the trend has been building for several years. “Applications for private-sector jobs have been steadily declining while government job applications rise,” Mashroor noted.

He attributed this shift to static benefit packages in the private sector alongside recent public pay-scale revisions that significantly improved civil service remuneration and security.