Unemployment at 37%, House committee says
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The unemployment rate in Myanmar is about 37 per cent, while more than one-quarter of the country's 60 million people live in dire poverty, according to the Lower House's planning and finance development committee.
The committee made public portions of the first-ever nationwide survey of income and employment, following a discussion of it in the Lower House last week.
The committee’s chairman, MP Soe Tha, said the study showed how necessary it was for the government to focus on poverty reduction, and that it also identified where in the country people’s needs were greatest.
The study collected data on food, clothing and shelter at households in every state and region of the union. Although Soe Tha did not say what criteria were used to set the poverty line, the MP said the study found the highest rates in Chin State (73 per cent), Rakhine State (44 per cent) and Shan State (33 per cent).
The poverty rate was also above the national average of 26 per cent in Ayeyawady Region (32 per cent), Magway Region (27 per cent) and Mandalay Region (27 per cent).
In Yangon the household poverty rate is 16 per cent, the survey found.
Soe Tha said the survey showed that the government needed to focus on reducing poverty and that it provided impetus for the government’s poverty reduction plan, which it planned to implement in 2015 or 2016.
The poverty rates corresponded to unemployment rates, the MP said, noting that they exceeded the national average of 37 per cent in every state and two regions.
The survey underscored the need to create more jobs and where the need is most acute, Soe Tha said. Increasing employment leads to higher income and better lives, he said.
