Almost half of the people of working age group in urban areas of the Kathmandu Valley are not employed and do not intend to find a job anytime soon either, depicting a sorry state of labour participation, which is preventing the economy from running at full throttle.

Major urban areas in the Valley — Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City, and Bhaktapur, Madhyapur Thimi and Kirtipur municipalities — are home to 1.01 million people aged 15 to 59, shows the latest Central Bureau of Statistics report prepared after analysing data collected during the National Population and Housing Census in 2011.

Of these people, 50.30 per cent are working, 1.20 per cent are unemployed and 1.50 per cent are partially employed.

But surprisingly, of the total people of the working age group, 468,491, or 46.22 per cent, are ‘economically inactive’. This means these people do not want a job, are not looking for one or cannot make themselves available even if they find work.

“Such a high proportion of economically inactive population affects production and hits gross domestic product (which determines the economy’s size),” CBS Deputy Director General Rudra Suwal told The Himalayan Times. “So, it is essential that a very large portion of people of working age group engage in some kind of income generating activity. This keeps the economy vibrant.”

Among several urban centres in the Valley, proportion of economically inactive population is highest in Kirtipur Municipality, where a total of 48,673 people aged 15-59 reside. Of these people, 25,713, or 53 per cent, are economically inactive. 

Kathmandu Metropolitan City is another urban area where the ratio of economically inactive population is quite high. Here, 696,715 people aged 15-59 live. Out of these, 329,891, or 47 per cent, are economically inactive.

On the contrary, labour participation rate, among the Valley’s urban centres, is highest in Bhaktapur Municipality, where only 37 per cent of 55,566 people aged 15-59 are economically inactive.

People remain economically inactive for several reasons. One, especially among women, is family obligation, as they have to look after children, do household chores and even take care of in-laws if they are living in joint families. Also, lack of certain qualification may be holding them back from taking up a job. Because of these reasons, proportion of economically inactive women is generally high.

But ironically 36 per cent of the total inactive population in urban areas of the Valley are males, shows the report.

One of the reasons for this, according to Suwal, is low labour participation rate among students.

People aged 20 to 24 — who are generally students — account for almost 19 per cent of the total population in the 15-59 age group. But 63 per cent of these people are economically inactive.

“Many of those aged 20-24 may have opted to stay idle because of dearth of part time jobs,” Suwal said. “So, until we introduce the practice of paying workers on hourly basis — as in many foreign countries — many students may not be able to make positive contribution to the economy.”

Published on: 9 January 2015 | The Himalayan Times