Bhutan has more job vacancies than the job seekers registered with the Labour Ministry. Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay said this during the Question Hour session of the National Assembly yesterday.
The Prime Minister highlighted the trend while responding to the question of Kengkhar-Weringla MP, Rinzin Jamtsho. The MP said, the government, as pledged during its campaign in 2013, has neither provided unemployment benefits to unemployed youth nor achieved 100 per cent employment.
Dasho Tshering Tobgay said in the last four years, the government has recruited over 35,000 youth.
“We have only 2,511 unemployed youth who are registered for job. We have announced 3,626 vacancies so far and we have only 2,511 unemployed youth. We have more vacancies than job seekers.”
Lyonchhen also underlined that it is important for unemployed youth to register with the Labour Ministry for vacancy updates.
“We have spent over 1.1 bn ngultrum to initiate various programmes to benefit unemployed youth. We initiated direct employment schemes, overseas employments, provided training to acquire job skills and internship programmes for graduates. This has benefited to 20,578 unemployed youth.”
The government has also come up with job plans and identified areas of employment for 2017 and 2018. Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay said, this year alone, there are close to 5,900 job vacancies in government organisations, overseas and private sector.