The Bhutanese Leading the way.
“Be Employed, Be Productive, Be Useful” was the theme of the 13th National Job Fair, where more than 1,000 job seekers attended the fair at Changlimithang parking space, where the fair was held.
More than 40 private, corporate and government sectors including new overseas employment agents set up stalls in the fair displaying various job vacancies, training opportunities and job information in line with the current labour market.
During the two days job fair, the 40 exhibitors announced 2,806 vacancies. The highest number of vacancies announced were for class 10 pass out followed by class 12 pass out. The least vacancy announced was for Diploma and certificate with 97 slots.
The 40 exhibitors received 4,262 applicants for their announced vacancies during the two days fair. However, in some cases the same jobseekers applied for more than one vacancy.
Lyonpo Nyeema Sangay Tshempo said that labour and human resources ministry invited four regional employment and labour offices to participate in the job fair.
The main principle behind organizing a job fair is to provide a common platform for the employers and jobseekers to interact and enable on-the-spot recruitment selection, adding to time and cost effectiveness.
The overall goal in the 11th FYP is to achieve full, productive, gainful and decent employment for the people of Bhutan, which aims at achieving high levels of human development and maximization of GNH.
Lyonpo said, “Although we achieved full employment in 2015, but the female unemployment and youth unemployment has risen sharply and still 42,000 jobseekers are in the market.”
Similarly, he said that the youth unemployment problems are high in the urban areas as compared to rural areas. In addition, most of the unemployed youth have either a higher secondary or bachelor’s degree.
According to the ministry, a main reason behind the existing unemployment problems in the country is work location choices, whereby almost all the jobseekers prefer cities to rural areas. It was also due to differences in working conditions and work environment in public and the private sectors.
In addition, jobseekers wait for vacancies that match their aspirations, whereby corporate and private sector employers only look for the candidates with prior work experience.
“The existing unemployment can be that of fixed mindset of our jobseekers and their parents for white collar jobs in the civil service and private sector,” Lyonpo Tshempo added.
From 1 July 2013 until 30 April 2016, a total of 27,737 jobseekers have registered in the job portal system maintained by the ministry. As per the statistics maintained by the Ministry, 9,893 job seekers have been placed in various government, private, corporate and NGOs through regular placement schemes.
According to MoLHR, apart from the regular placements, a total of 3,231 jobseekers have been engaged through the Direct Employment Scheme, 2,603 engaged through the Overseas Employment Scheme, 318 engaged through the Graduate Skills Program and 946 engaged through the Youth Employment Skills program.
Along with this, 3,802 jobseekers have been engaged under the internship programs, 1,087 under the Entrepreneurship Development Program, and 301 engaged through the Apprenticeship Training Program.
The ministry has been able to place 16, 991 jobseekers and further engage 5,190 jobseekers in various internship and training programs. Therefore, the unemployment number in the job portal currently stands at 5, 556.
