Although Myanmar has passed a wave of unprecedented reforms, many of the country's young people lack skills, training, and jobs.
Htein Lin Aung is studying hard for a degree in architecture, and the
stakes are high: He has already failed his first-year exam twice, he
says, and without a passing score this year, his chances of finding a
good job won't improve.
His employer, a furniture-design company, pays him just 85,000 kyat,
or $100, per month, for six days of part-time work. Htein Lin Aung says
the job – which took him four months to find – barely covers lunch,
transportation, and some other expenses.
"It's good that I live with my family, because I don't need to pay for breakfast, dinner or my rent," he says.
His predicament underscores a largely undocumented problem: Although Myanmar's
nominally civilian government has passed a wave of unprecedented
political and economic reforms since taking power in 2011, many of the
country’s young people lack the skills, training, and jobs that will
help them see tangible benefits from the reform process.
Observers say it remains unclear to what extent Myanmar’s young
population will benefit from a wave of new foreign investment that is
beginning to kickstart a range of domestic industries, from
manufacturing to tourism, and whether restless youth will exacerbate
crime and other social ills.
The new government has passed laws
that criminalize forced labor and allow workers to form unions, and last
year it announced a plan to overhaul the education system. A range of
foreign donors, including the Swedish, Australian, and Japanese
governments, are now funding projects to boost youth employment and
provide skills training.
The government is “very concerned” about youth unemployment, says Steve Marshall, Myanmar liason officer for the International Labor Organization,
the United Nations agency advising the government on labor reform.
However, “Putting in the necessary structures … will not be something
that happens overnight.”
Youth unemployment is a global concern.
The ILO estimates 40 percent of world's 160 million jobless are between
the ages of 15 and 24, and that 85 percent of the 1 billion in that age
bracket live in developing countries. Global unemployment levels among
youth are on average two to three times higher than they are for adults,
according to the agency, and young people are more likely to work
low-paying, temporary jobs that don't offer security or employment
benefits.
Estimates vary on the scope of unemployment in Myanmar, formerly called Burma. The US Central Intelligence Agency says it is 5.4 percent, for example, but a parliamentary committee recently put the figure at 37 percent. Mr. Marshall of the ILO says there are no accurate figures.
What
is clear, experts say, is that Myanmar needs agencies and programs that
will allow the unemployed to access jobs and skills training in the
short term, and vocational training and labor institutions that will
help build a workforce over the longer term. The median age of the
country's 55 million people is just 27.
Aung San Suu Kyi,
Myanmar’s leading opposition parliamentarian and a 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize winner, has singled out youth unemployment as one of the biggest
challenges the country faces in its transition from repressive military
Junta toward representative democracy.
“It is not so much
joblessness as hopelessness that threatens our future," she told
attendees of the International Labor Conference in Geneva last June.
"Unemployed youth lose confidence in the society that has failed to give
them the chance to realize their potential.”
A major obstacle is
lack of adequate educational facilities and resources. Marie Lall, a
leader in education and South Asian studies at the Institute of
Education, University of London, says although international donors are
funding educational training programs, such programs typically are
targeted at urban youth, putting rural youth at a comparative
disadvantage.
Myanmar's ministry of education is now reviewing its
education policies, with a large-scale reform planned for 2014, but Ms.
Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy,
has formed its own committee to carry out a similar task – a move Ms.
Lall says is counterproductive.
As Myanmar’s politicians debate
the best way forward, it’s an open question whether youth unemployment
and other hardships will push some youth to deviant behavior. "Until now
it was not worth your freedom to commit crimes [because] the
punishments were draconian,” Ms. Lall says. "Now suddenly people can
speak up, and there is going to be trouble."
Some young people are
leaving Myanmar in search of a better life, even as their country grabs
international headlines and tries to woo foreign investors with tax
breaks, special economic zones, and a new foreign investment law.
Mung Gualnam, who runs a Yangon
job-recruitment agency, says he helps about 60 Myanmar workers find
jobs each month in Singapore and Malaysia. Some are low-skilled and earn
about $400 per month in overseas factories, compared with about $100 or
$200 at home for similar work. Those with university degrees can earn
about $1,500 per month abroad, compared with domestic salaries of just
$200 to $300 for the same work.
A few international companies in
Yangon pay local managers up to $2,000 or $3,000 per month, but such
cases are relatively rare, "so our educated people are rushing out."
source: The Christian Science Monitor
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