Announcements for jobs are quickly becoming common in the apparel industrial areas, and vacancy notices can be seen in several factories.

Manufacturers say that since the beginning of last year, Bangladesh has started getting massive amounts of purchase orders as the European and American markets have returned to normalcy following mass Covid-19 vaccination campaigns.

Moreover, the deteriorating pandemic situation in Vietnam and India, political unrest in Myanmar, and conflicts with China have contributed to the increase in the orders for Bangladesh.

As a result, the entrepreneurs of the country reopened the previously closed lines of their factories, while others have started entirely new lines, resulting in the need for more workers.

LEED certified Tarasima Apparels Limited, one of the most popular garment factories of Satuaria in Manikganj, is also going through a worker shortage.

“Many workers returned to their villages in the early days of the pandemic, and a significant portion of them never came back to the city,” said Sirajul Islam Azad, senior general manager of Bitopi Group — the parent company of Tarasima Apparels.

He also said that due to the increase in purchase orders, the factory has expanded and imported new machines, but the required manpower is not available.

Their factory in Manikganj employs about 7,000 workers, a significant portion of whom are new recruits.

Along with Manikganj, the garment factories of Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar, Chittagong and other areas have also been facing similar issues since the last few months.

According to the manufacturers, a number of readymade garment factories are operating with a deficit of 10-20% of their worker capacities.

Shovon Islam, managing director of Sparrow Group, said: “Several workers exited the industry at the beginning of Covid-19, and they did not come back. That is why the factories are facing this problem.”

He also said that some of the workers have left the profession and joined other occupations, like driving autorickshaws, running small shops, and running tailoring shops.

“There were 4.4 million workers in the pre-Covid-19 BGMEA database, which has now shrunk to around 3.3 million,” he added.

However, many new workers have been added and the current number is about 4.5 million which will be updated in the database, he said.

“As exports have surpassed pre-Covid-19 levels, it is certain that the number of workers is increasing because it is impossible to increase production without people,” he added.

Islam also said that the real shortage is that of skilled workers, as the newly recruited workers still have a lot to learn.

“There is no sufficient system to turn unskilled workers into skilled ones with short training sessions. Large factories like ours have these facilities, but small and medium factories do not have this facility, so they are suffering more,” he added.

He also said that the efficiency of the previous operators was 70-75% on average, which has now come down to 65%, meaning that skilled workers are decreasing.

“This 5% efficiency reduction for a factory like ours with only 10,000 workers puts a big dent on overall production and exports,” he added.

He suggested that they should now provide training to these unskilled workers.

“BGMEA has taken some initiatives on this. We have met with the army chief to allow us to open training centres in cantonments,” he added.

He also suggested including garment related courses in the curriculum of every university and college which may lead the country’s workforce to join the mid-level management and industrial engineering.

Moreover, the sector needs additional 500,000 to a million workers to meet the manpower demand, he added.

A director of Savar-based Aboni Fashions Limited said that they have a shortage of workers too, adding that most of the factories in their region have recruited all the new workers, creating a labour shortage.

According to the BGMEA, they have 12 training centres to train new workers, but it is far less than necessary.

Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the BGMEA, recently said in an interview that the problems will not be solved by recruiting only new workers as the sector needs skilled workers who are ready to operate machines.

He further said that the government should come forward with this issue in coordination with the relevant organizations, otherwise, the sector will suffer.

Salauddin Swapan, acting president of IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC), said that due to the pressure of production and high orders, there has been a shortage of workers.

Asked if there would be any change in wages for hiring new workers, he said new entrants have some bargaining opportunities, so they earn a bit more in wages.

However, the older workers are being deprived in this case.

The apparel sector, which brings in more than 80% of Bangladesh’s export earnings, earned $31.45 billion in FY21 — a 12.55% growth.

RMG exports grew 30.3% to $23.98 billion during the July-January period of the current fiscal.