India’s Unemployment Rate At 45-Year-High: NSSO

New Delhi: A government-conducted study has revealed that India’s unemployment rate has hit a 45-year-high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18.

The yet to be released results, which could put the Narendra Modi Government into embarrassment ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, has said the unemployment rate was at its highest level since 1972-73.

As per the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) periodic labour force survey (PLFS), unemployment was higher in urban areas at 7.8 per cent as compared to 5.3 per cent in rural areas of the country. The unemployment rate among youth reached a record high level in 2017-18 as compared to previous year and ‘much higher compared to that in the overall population,’ Business Standard reported.

The paper reported that the NSSO report on job data has been at the centre of much controversy after two non-governmental members of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), PC Mohanan and JV Meenakshi, stepped down on Monday amid ‘disagreements’ with the government over the functioning of the commission. The resignations are being seen as a protest against non-publication of NSSO’s survey on employment and unemployment situation in India for 2017-18.

The latest data on unemployment in India is the first comprehensive survey on employment conducted by a government agency after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation move in November 2016. Even in absence of official data, it was widely known that unemployment had risen sharply in the past few years because of decisions like demonetisation and shoddy implementation of a badly designed GST, apart from factors that may be beyond the government’s control.

“For educated rural females, the unemployment rate ranged between 9.7 per cent to 15.2 per cent between 2004-05 to 2011-12, which rose to 17.3 per cent in 2017-18,” the report said. In case of rural educated males, the joblessness rate surged to 10.5 per cent in 2017-18 from 3.5-4.4 per cent between 2004-05 to 2011-12.

For instance, the rate of joblessness among rural males in the age group of 15-29 years jumped more than three folds to 17.4 per cent in 2017-18 versus 5 per cent in 2011-12. In case of female youth in rural areas, unemployment rate stood at 13.6 per cent in 2017-18 as compared to 4.8 per cent in 2011-12.

In a similar trend, the labour force participating rate (LFPR) –the portion of the population working or seeking job -declined from 36.9 per cent in 2017-18 as against 39.5 per cent in 2011-12.

Earlier, The Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy had said that 1.10 crore jobs were lost in 2018 alone, but the report was rejected by the government. Its reaction, about latest NSSO findings, are awaited.