After his MA studies, Yunus became part of the Bureau of Economics as a research assistant for Professor Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan. In 1961 he was given work as a lecturer in economics in Chittagong College. During that time he started a packaging factory. He was given a Fulbright scholarship in 1965, to study in the United States. He was awarded his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States, in 1969. From 1969 to 1972, Yunus was an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.