India’s Unemployment Rate Stood At 6.1% In 2017-18

New Delhi: India’s worst fear has come true.

The government on Friday conceded that the unemployment rate in the country stood at 6.1 per cent during 2017-18, the highest in 45 years.

When this figure was leaked to the media in February this year, the Narendra Modi government had rejected it, saying the study had failed to capture the actual job growth in the country.

But the data released by the Ministry of Labour on the first day of Modi 2.0 regime has matched the leaked figures in the media.

The unemployment figures are the highest since 1972-73.

According to the data, 7.8 per cent of all employable youths in the country were jobless during the 2017-18. The percentage stood at 5.3 per cent in rural India.

Incidentally, unemployment was never an election issue — either for opposition Congress or for the Mahagathbandhan partners.