Employment Pledge Rises with Growth in Registration of Companies
The proposed jobs offered by the companies registered in the Department of Industries in the first five months of FY 2021/21 has grown by 122 percent.
the HRM
With the start of the new fiscal year, private sector investment has resumed which was largely stalled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The country’s leading businesses have started new projects, which has opened thousands of job opportunities in the domestic job market.
The latest statistics of the Department of Industry (DoI) show employment opportunities in the domestic job market look optimistic. More than 12,000 jobs have been pledged by the industries registered at DoI in the current fiscal year. In the first five months of FY2021/22, the department has registered 134 small, medium and large industries that have pledged jobs to 12,295 people, an increase of 122 percent compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The situation of employment in the country became precarious in 2020 when private sector organizations stopped new hirings and held back their expansion plans after the government announced lockdown in late March of that year. The majority of employers adopted measures such as working hours deduction, curtailing allowances, converting full-time employment to part-time, and enforcing unpaid leaves to sustain their operation. Similarly, thousands of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were forced to shut down for an indefinite period rendering hundreds of thousands of their employees and workers jobless. As many as 2 million jobs in Nepal were disrupted by the pandemic, according to an International Labor Organization (ILO) report.
Jobs Pledges in First Five Months
Category FY 2020/21 FY 2021/22
Agro & Forestry 1395 446
Energy 594 587
IT 146 347
Infrastructure 76 76
Manufacturing 1607 6930
Service 1155 1701
Tourism 619 2148
Total 5516 12235
Source: Department of Industry
In the current fiscal year, manufacturing sector companies have led the employment pledge. A total of 58 companies belonging to the sector were registered with the commitment to provide employment to 6,930 people.
Despite the tourism sector still reeling under the impact of Covid-19, the sector has pledged 2,148 jobs so far in this fiscal. The service sector came third pledging 1,701 jobs.
Industries Proposing 200 and More Jobs
SARBOTAM ITTA UDHOK 471
SHREERAM TOBACCO UDYOG 445
SAMRIDDHI METALICS 400
GAURISHANKAR CEMENT 340
SURYA NEPAL (HOTEL & RESTAURANT) 306
MALIKA STEELS 285
TEN STEEL PARK 255
SIDDHILAXMI FOODS (OIL) 253
SIDDHILAXMI FOODS (RICE & DAAL) 224
PRO TEX PVT. LTD. 210
NEPAL PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRIES 200
SHERPA OUTDOOR SPORTS GOODS INDUSTRIES 200
POKHARA ECO RED BRICKS 200
Of the registered industries, three have proposed employments for more than 400 people. Sarbottam Itta Udhyog has proposed the highest 471 jobs while Shreerram Tobacco Udhyog and Samriddhi Metallics have pledged 445 and 400 jobs, respectively. Meanwhile, Gaurishankar Cement and Surya Nepal’s hotel project have stated they would employ over 300 people.
Sharp Asymmetry between Demand and Supply: CNI
There is a sharp asymmetry between the demand and supply of employment opportunities in the domestic job market. The recent report of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) shows 992 jobs were generated in the first quarter of FY 2021/22, for which 7648 individuals had applied.
The Industrial Status Report states service sector generated 67.4 percent of the new employment opportunities during this period. The second highest employment generating sector was the manufacturing sector.
According to the CNI report, all industry sectors were net employment generators in Q1 of 2021/22. “This shows all sectors are in the phase of recovery,” states CNI report.
