SANEM starts a new event for students from April 2019, called “Youthonomics”, with the belief in mind that engaging the youth in an intellectual and academic discussion is essential for developing a more informed and rational society. It is a monthly essay writing competition for the youth, that reflects their economic thoughts. Through Youthonomics, SANEM encourages young writers to voice their views and opinions on socio-economic issues. SANEM awards prize money and certificates to the winners of each episode of Youthonomics.

The topic of the 1^st episode of Youthonomics was “Unemployment Problem and its Remedy”. Participants presented their assessment of the unemployment problem of Bangladesh, feasible policy suggestions, along with proposals on the mechanism of implementation in their respective articles.Unemployment is now a major problem in economics and politics worldwide. The problem is also evident in the context of Bangladesh. According to the Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate in Bangladesh is 4.2 percent. According to the ILO 2018 report, the youth unemployment rate in Bangladesh has increased between 2010-2017 from 8.32% to 12.7%. In this context, finding sustainable solutions to the problem of unemployment is very important for the economy of Bangladesh. Despite http://premier-pharmacy.com/product/levitra/ higher economic growth, Bangladesh has failed to create adequate job, especially for the rising young population. Bangladesh is passing through a window of opportunity called demographic dividend that will last till 2040s. Creating job opportunities for this large number of youth and upskilling them is highly needed. But approximately 30% of youth are not in education, employment or training (NEET) according to Ministry of Youth and Sports. There is a huge gap between skills produced by educational institutions and the demand of industries. Evidence based research and long term planning is needed to solve this skill mismatch. There is an apparent gender gap in labour force participation, employment rate, wages and economic opportunities for women in Bangladesh which needs to be addressed too. 

The winners of episode 1 were:

• 1st place: Samanta Islam, Department of Economics, Bangladesh University of Professionals and Rakib Hossain, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka
• 2nd place: Syed Mahin, Department of Economics, Jahangirnagar University and Jannatul Ferdowsi Disha, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka
• 3rd place: Anindya Adhikary, Department of Environmental and Resource Economics, Dhaka School of Economics and Shaugat Ashraf Khan, Department of Economics, Shahjalal University of Science & Technology

The prizes were distributed among the winners at SANEM office.