The country’s 1.50 crore households, out of 3.37 crore, employ 1.60 crore paid workers, according to a survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The paid workers include house tutors, maids, gardeners, gatekeepers, caretakers, cooks and drivers. Of them, 1.09 crore are employed in rural areas while 51 lakh in urban areas, according to the findings. There were 1,697 self-employed professional firms, around 22.75 lakh self-employed other professional services and 1.50 crore households which generated employment in the financial year 2011-2012 in the country, the Self-Employed Professionals Survey-2013 report released on Monday showed.
The three sectors — professional, scientific and technical activities, other professional services activities and domestic personnel employing households — broadly called as self-employed professional services contributed 4.4 per cent to the GDP and the estimated gross value addition of the services to the economy was Tk 42,134.84 crore in the FY12, according to the report.
In the previous FY11, the contribution of the sectors to the GDP was 4 per cent and gross value addition was Tk 37,587.05 crore, it said.
SAMAHAR, a private research organisation conducted the survey in between April 2013 and May 2013 on behalf of the BBS.
The survey was conducted on samples of 271 firms for professional activities, 1,124 establishments for other professional services and 3,100 households from rural and urban areas.
Architecture, advertisement, chartered accounting, engineering, interior designing, research, photography, law, beauty parlour, and laundry and dry cleaning firms are included in professional, scientific and technical activities.
Tailoring, laundry, saloon, medical treatment, repairing of freeze, TV, radio, computer and mobile, key making service, household goods repairing etc are included in other professional services activities run by self-employed people.
SAMAHAR chief Md Sheikh Giash Uddin presented the key findings of the survey at a programme presided over by Statistics and Informatics Division secretary Suraiya Begum. It was organised by the BBS.
According to the survey, 21,040 people get jobs at professional firms and 5,10,017 people including 1.42 lakh part-timers get jobs in other professional services.
Out of 1.50 crore households as employers, more than 1.05 crore households are from rural areas and 45 lakh households are from urban areas, shows the survey.
In the FY12, the gross value addition to the economy from the households as employers was estimated at Tk 17,914 crore which they paid to their domestic workers.
Households employed the highest number of 77 lakh workers or maids and 73 lakh house tutors.
Households in rural areas employ the highest number of house tutors and maids which are 53 lakh and 49 lakh respectively while households in urban areas generate jobs for more than 27 lakh maids and 20 lakh house tutors.
Drivers are paid higher wages which is on an average Tk 39,938 a year while house tutors are paid less remuneration with yearly payment of Tk 8,326, it shows.
Interestingly, in rural areas, a household maid earns yearly salary at Tk 9,374 while a house tutor gets less than Tk 6,080 a year.
BBS director general GM Kamal, among others, attended the programme.
-With New Age input
