Bangladesh’s workers needed around the world as global economies reopen.

Serbia, Malta, and Albania might soon join countries like Romania, Malta, or Uzbekistan who hire Bangladesh’s skilled and semi-skilled workers.

NEWSBANGLADESH NEWSLONG READ

MBBC Team

10/23/20213 min read

The combination of ageing population, low birth rate, and retirement of the baby boom generation in western industrialized countries, led to a labor shortage before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Central and Eastern European countries, for example, experienced a population decline in the past 15 years, due in part to immigration in Western Europe to take vacant job positions at a much better pay than home. Creating in turn a labor shortage for those countries.

Staffing firm “Manpower Global” in its Q3 2021 labor shortage survey found that most business owners/corporations have difficulty hiring workers:

Romania 86%, Germany 82%, Poland 81%, Slovenia 80%, Greece 80%, Hungary 77%, Bulgaria 71% Czech Republic 65%, Croatia 61%... (Percentage of difficulty in filling a job position for a business).

Now that Covid-19 restrictions around Europe are easing, economies are gradually reopening and the surge in demand for workers increased the already existing labor shortage, explained partly by a change of aspirations from workers during prolonged lockdown periods, who are not returning to their previous job positions. This is especially the case of the hospitality sector, with hundreds of thousand workers permanently changed jobs due to the uncertainty about business (bar/restaurants/hotels…) closures and reopening (30% of Ireland hospitality workforce moved to another sector!).

In Greece for example almost never experienced labor shortage prior to the pandemic, employers in the hospitality sector currently have difficulties finding workers.

Another example, some skilled workers in Hungary making a salary of USD 1,750 per month, are leaving for Germany where very easily they find the same job in for USD 3,500 per month, resulting in Hungarian companies importing thousands of workers from Ukraine.

The German Integration Commissioner, Annette Widmann-Mauz, has warned that the German economy is facing a “desperate” search for skilled labor, missing 270,000 qualified workers immediately.

In Serbia on October 11, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen visited Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic who expressed his interest of recruiting Bangladesh workers. One month before this visit, Bangladesh Ambassador to Serbia Md Shameem Ahsan, met Serbian Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Minister Dr. Darija Kisic Tepavcevic to discuss this issue, and the possible signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in hiring skilled and semi-skilled workers from Bangladesh through legal channels.

Romania decided this month to recruit 40,000 foreign workers, paving the way for Bangladesh to send more workers to the country. There are already 1,000 Bangladeshi workers in Romania and more will be sent, as the country urgently needs doctors, nurses, construction workers, electricians, household helpers and manufacturing workers.

Jordan where there is almost 100,000 Bangladeshi working in the Ready-Made Garment sector, is considering Bangladeshi workers in the agriculture sector, benefiting from their good reputation in several European and African countries.

Even Albania, one of Europe’s poorest countries albeit having its economy grow quite fast over the last two decades, have problems with youngsters seeking seasonal work in nearby Greece and Italy for higher wages. This results in a labor shortage in sectors like shoe and clothes manufacturing, food processing or seasonal tourism activities. Prime Minister Edi Rama during April’s 2021 election campaign encouraged local companied to hire workers from Bangladesh and promoted the new law which makes it very easy for employers to hire foreigners in seven days.

More and more of those workers going abroad are skilled ones, like the ones working in Uzbekistan’s engineering companies or being trained like the new project in Greece.

The Bangladesh mission in Greece hired a Greek training institute (renowned “Iek Delta”) to train Bangladeshis in helping them get better jobs. There are 30,000 Bangladeshi in Greece, employed mainly in agriculture, hospitality and RMG sectors, and now it will be possible thanks this training to improve their skills and help them better jobs. The “Basic Training Program in Culinary Arts” was launched on September 17, 2021, with a first batch of 15 Bangladeshi workers, and is tailored for the needs of Greek hospitality employers.

Three memorandums of understandings (MoU) with Greece, Malta and Albania are in signing process for continuous recruitment of labor from Bangladesh, in sectors like agriculture, construction and fishing. Those MoU will join the already existing ones with Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

https://go.manpowergroup.com/talent-shortage

https://go.manpowergroup.com/hubfs/Talent%20Shortage%202021/MPG_2021_Outlook_Survey-Global.pdf

https://www.dw.com/en/labor-shortage-takes-steam-out-of-eastern-europe/a-48116084

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/europe-heads-for-jobs-crunch-that-may-be-deeper-than-the-u-s-s

https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/blog/the-pandemic-aggravated-labour-shortages-in-some-sectors-the-problem-is-now-emerging-in-others

https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/chronic-labor-shortage-in-the-czech-republic-puts-power-in-the-hands-of-employees

https://www.dw.com/en/labor-shortages-are-back-to-haunt-czech-economy/a-57981402

https://www.todayonline.com/world/analysis-remember-me-fast-recovery-labour-shortage-haunts-eastern-europe

https://www.thelocal.de/20210623/germany-desperately-searching-for-skilled-workers-to-plug-shortage/

https://www.risingbd.com/english/national/news/82916

https://unb.com.bd/category/bangladesh/serbian-companies-keen-to-hire-bangladeshi-workers/78656

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/foreign-affairs/2021/09/12/serbian-companies-keen-to-hire-bangladeshi-workers