The September, 2017 issue of Thinking Aloud comes with the theme of ‘employment and labor market challenges for South Asia’. The first article on “Are we entering into a ‘jobless’ growth phase in South Asia?” focuses on a timely concern that, although South Asia has been the fastest growing region in the world, performance in terms of an employment friendly growth has not been satisfactory. The article suggests for a ‘meaningful’ structural transformation coupled with enhancement in productivity and economic diversification in order to translate the economic growth into an inclusive growth. The second article titled “Why do we need to be concerned about the youth “not in employment, education or training” in South Asia?” points out that, the NEET rate in South Asia is alarmingly high with an average NEET rate well above 20% mark and an average female NEET rate as high as 45%. Applying a logit model using LFS, 2013 of Bangladesh the article finds that, the impacts of being a school dropout, female or physically disabled increases the probability of being NEET. On the other hand, parental education or family income plays a positive role in reducing the likelihood to be NEET. Thus the authors suggest for an improvement in the education system while engaging a wider share of youth in vocational education and training, along with adequate social, political and policy reforms to elevate participation of females in the labor market. In this issue, SANEM interviews Prof. Dr. Alakh N. Sharma, Director of the Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi where Prof. Sharma talks on the major labor market challenges in South Asia. The fourth page covers the events that took place in the month of August, 2017.
