Bangladesh’s IT Paradox: 13.5% Jobless Grads, 40% Vacancies

Bangladesh’s information technology sector is running a paradox it cannot resolve on either end. Graduate unemployment in the country reached 13.5 percent in 2024, the highest rate across every education bracket, yet the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services reports that close to 40 percent of IT positions sit unfilled for lack of suitable candidates. The country is training programmers the industry does not want and producing vacancies the graduates cannot fill, and the cost of that mismatch no longer shows up only in unemployment statistics. It now moves in planes, in freelance platforms, and in the salaries that vanish with the talent.

The Numbers That Don’t Add Up

The contradiction sits in plain sight. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey 2024, the 2024 Labour Force Survey report released in September 2025, counted 8.85 lakh unemployed graduates, a figure that fell by just 20,000 from the year before even as the rate itself ticked up from 13.11 percent. The national unemployment rate sat at 4.48 percent over the same period, roughly a third of what graduates face, and for young women with degrees the rate climbs to roughly 20 percent.

On the employer side, BASIS members describe a 40 percent skills vacancy in IT alone. An Asian Development Bank paper puts the share of unfilled IT positions at about 40 percent due to a shortage of the right skills, and a 2026 analysis of the country’s job market points to the same split, a graduate unemployment rate of 13.5 percent paired with a 40 percent skills gap in IT and a freelance economy that absorbed roughly a million Bangladeshis who could not find formal work.

Bangladesh’s IT Mismatch in Numbers

• 13.5 percent – graduate unemployment rate, the highest across education levels (BBS LFS 2024)
• 8.85 lakh – total unemployed graduates counted in 2024 (BBS LFS 2024)
• ~20 percent – graduate unemployment rate for women with tertiary degrees (BBS LFS 2024)
• 40 percent – IT sector skills vacancy reported by BASIS members
• ~80 percent – fresh graduates who cite the experience requirement as their main barrier to a first job
• ~55 percent – young Bangladeshis aged 18 to 35 who say they want to emigrate

What the Classroom Still Sends

The classroom is where the gap opens. Muhtasim Jawad, a software engineering student at the University of Dhaka, has spent his degree splitting time between his coursework and online courses he pays for out of his own pocket, because what the university teaches does not match what employers ask for in interviews.

I am regularly juggling both my academic courses and online courses just to be ready for the job market. The current curriculum is simply outdated. On top of that, there are courses that would not land me a job. I don’t see the point in studying chemical reactions or Bangladesh history when I am missing out on things that are relevant to the current world. Companies today are looking for skills, and CGPA is not the only determinant. It would have been great if what I studied in class and what the industry needs actually matched.

The speaker is Muhtasim Jawad, a software engineering student at the University of Dhaka, interviewed for The Daily Star.

At the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Rafsan Rahman Rafi, a CSE student, said the syllabus has not kept pace with the technology it is supposed to teach. “Even if the university wanted to introduce relevant courses, it cannot, as there are no teachers and no resources. For instance, cybersecurity is one of the most in-demand fields right now, but there are no teachers in our university to teach us,” he said. At North South University, second-year student Nasif Ahsan described a system anchored in grades: “The whole curriculum is built around CGPA. But companies look for skills when hiring, and for that, we need to work on real projects, not just academia.”

The gap that universities cannot fill has become one companies can no longer ignore. Md Mubir M Chowdhury, founder of Sokrio Technologies and an adjunct faculty member at the Institute of Business Administration at the University of Dhaka, said the larger shortcoming is not technical knowledge at all. “Many graduates can answer questions they have prepared for but struggle when faced with unfamiliar situations that require judgement, adaptability, and independent thinking.” In the last year, he has parted ways with several employees who passed interviews but could not perform, and he has rewritten his hiring process as a result.

Why Companies Won’t Take a Chance

The other side of the same loop is the hiring floor. A peer-reviewed study titled “The Gap Between the Required Entry-Level Job Experience and the Opportunity for the Freshers in Bangladesh” found that most companies in the country demand two to three years of experience even for entry-level positions, and that around 80 percent of surveyed fresh graduates cited that requirement as the primary reason they could not find work after graduating.

I applied to 21 companies. 18 of them rejected me before the interview because I had zero experience. How am I supposed to have experience if no one hires freshers? It felt like the whole system was designed for me to fail.

The speaker is Mahidul, a developer at a Bangladeshi technology firm whose name has been changed at his request.

Mahidul eventually landed a job, but spent his first months learning on the clock. “The salary was low, and on top of it there were many things I had to learn on the go which my curriculum never covered. The company gave us no training at all. A lot of the people who joined with me could not cope and left.” Companies justify the rule in cost terms: industry estimates put the time it takes a fresh hire to contribute meaningfully at 6 to 12 months, a stretch no small firm can absorb when curricula and certificates no longer vouch for readiness. With academia not screening for the right skills, recruiters fall back on years of work as a proxy, even for jobs that did not exist when those years were being counted.

The Freelance Lifeboat, and Its Hidden Cost

For graduates who cannot find a formal job, the freelance economy has become a parallel employer. According to the Oxford Internet Institute, Bangladesh is the second-largest supplier of online labour in the world, accounting for about 16 percent of the global freelance pool, per a multi-year review of Bangladesh’s gig economy. The ICT Division puts freelance earnings at over $1 billion in 2023, up from $600 million in 2021, with a projection of $2.6 billion by 2025. Bangladesh ranks eighth globally in freelancing income, with an annual growth rate of 26 percent.

The lifeboat is real, and so is what it leaves behind. Close to half of Bangladeshi freelancers earn under $208 a month, a fraction of what their US counterparts average, and 59.6 percent say they lack formal English training, locking them out of the higher-paying contracts. The work that absorbs Bangladesh’s overflow of IT graduates is the same work that pulls it offshore, billed in dollars but spent on rent in Dhaka.

Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, framed the broader economy in the same terms. “The only real source of jobs is the government, and even there the numbers are limited, and not every year do those opportunities come through. That’s why, logically speaking, under these conditions, employment growth cannot realistically be expected.” The country’s IT export ambition runs into the same wall its junior developers run into: a domestic market that is not ready to absorb the talent it produces.

Chowdhury, the Sokrio founder, said AI has compressed the distance between candidates who actually understand their field and those who can hand the field off to a chatbot. “The visible difference between candidates who genuinely understand a subject and those who can generate impressive AI-assisted outputs has narrowed considerably. Strong fundamentals and the ability to defend your own work have become more important than ever.” For an industry already struggling to tell real skills from paper skills, that blur is a second filter to break through.

Where the Country’s Best Talent Goes

The salaries explain the rest. Entry-level software developers in Bangladesh earn between BDT 15,000 and BDT 35,000 per month, roughly USD 136 to USD 318, according to Glassdoor and PayScale. The same role in India pays between USD 360 and USD 540, per GeeksForGeeks, while in Sri Lanka, which has a smaller economy than Bangladesh, starting IT salaries run between USD 250 and USD 560, according to Ceylon Open Campus.

Approximately 55 percent of young Bangladeshis between 18 and 35 say they want to emigrate, and the rate among IT-trained professionals is rising faster than the broader figure. The freelance workforce already bills foreign clients and sends the money home, but it also ships the talent away. Bangladesh has become a net exporter of junior IT talent, a net importer of unfilled roles, and a junior cohort stuck in the middle paying for both.

Bridging the Gap, On Everyone’s Shoulders

Chowdhury, asked who bears the cost, declined to pick a single villain. “I do not believe any single party is to blame. Universities need to place greater emphasis on practical application and real-world problem-solving. Students have a responsibility too, and a degree alone is no longer sufficient. Bridging the gap between theory and practice requires effort from both academia and industry. Stronger collaboration through internships, guest lectures, industry projects, and curriculum feedback can significantly improve graduate readiness.” He pointed to the same levers as the path forward, the tools that have worked in neighbouring markets where campus recruitment pipelines turn final-year students into first-day employees.

For a country whose IT services ambition runs into the billions and whose freelance workforce already does, the next test is whether the system that produced those freelancers can also produce the staff to staff the offices next door. The Labour Force Survey will release its 2025 update later this year, and BASIS will publish its next skills gap estimate alongside it. The two numbers will land in the same briefing, and whether they get closer is a question of policy, not luck.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the graduate unemployment rate in Bangladesh right now?

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey 2024 puts graduate unemployment at 13.5 percent, the highest across all education levels, against a national unemployment rate of 4.48 percent. For women with tertiary degrees, the rate climbs to roughly 20 percent, a gap the official data does not soften.

Why can’t Bangladesh’s IT companies fill 40 percent of their open roles?

BASIS members describe a 40 percent skills vacancy in IT, and an Asian Development Bank paper puts the share of unfilled IT positions at about 40 percent due to a shortage of the right skills. Universities teach theory-heavy curricula that have not kept up with the technologies employers now hire for, and companies use years of experience as a proxy for readiness in a market where formal screening has broken down.

How does a junior software developer’s pay in Bangladesh compare with India or Sri Lanka?

Glassdoor and PayScale put entry-level developer salaries in Bangladesh between BDT 15,000 and BDT 35,000 per month, roughly USD 136 to USD 318. GeeksForGeeks lists the comparable Indian role at USD 360 to USD 540 a month, and Ceylon Open Campus puts Sri Lanka’s range at USD 250 to USD 560.

Is freelancing a real long-term career path for Bangladeshi IT graduates?

The ICT Division says freelancers earned over $1 billion in 2023, on a trajectory toward $2.6 billion by 2025, and the Oxford Internet Institute ranks Bangladesh as the world’s second-largest supplier of online labour. Close to half of those freelancers still earn under $208 a month, and 59.6 percent report no formal English training, so the path pays in aggregate but unevenly for individuals.

What is being done to close the Bangladesh IT skills gap?

Industry leaders point to internships, guest lectures, industry-led projects, and curriculum feedback as the tools that have worked in comparable markets. The Labour Force Survey will release a follow-up later this year, and BASIS will publish a new skills gap estimate alongside it, giving both sides of the gap a date to measure against.