Unemployment Situation

The escalation of violent protests and arson in Bihar over alleged irregularities in recruitment in the Railways is yet another symptom that shows the Indian economy is going through a terrible churn, and the effects on the populace are devastating. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a Mumbai-based independent think tank, estimates that the country’s unemployment rate rose up to 7.9% in December, and the figure has passed 8% this month. CMIE’s figures show that urban unemployment rose to 9.3% in December from 8.2% the previous month, and rural unemployment crept up to
7.3% from 6.4% in this duration. India’s unemployment rate has been surging over the last few years – the
steepest rise began in 2017-18, when it was 4.7%, going up to 6.3% in 2018-19 and, finally, 7.91% in December 2021.Over the last few months, the Government of India and the mainstream media have highlighted the return of economic growth. However, very little attention has been paid to the job market. India’s unemployment rate has been soaring. It went up to 7.91 per cent in December 2021 from 6.3 per cent in 2018-2019 and 4.7 per cent in 2017-18, when the trend started to change – a sign that this phenomenon is not just due to Covid.One probably needs to get back to the Raj years to see such a
movement towards ruralisation: Workers are back in their villages even though urban jobs provide better wages. Clearly, the surge started well before the Covid-19 pandemic came to India in February 2020 – in fact, data from a survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in 2017-18 showed that India’s unemployment rate was 6.1%, the highest since 1972-73 The dire situation of the employment sector is confirmed by the numbers released by the Ministry of Statistics. On the basis of the number of subscribers to the EPF, ESI and NPS schemes, it can be calculated that there has been no significant rise in jobs available in the formal sector in the last three years. The effects of the corona virus pandemic have only worsened the situation, with firms contracting and shedding workforce to reduce costs. But India seems to have done worse than other emerging economies, such as Bangladesh. While the Finance Ministry has been highlighting the emergence of the green shoots in the economy, rising joblessness presents a massive challenge to the NDA government, which came to power in 2014 with the promise
of multiplying the incomes of every segment of society. The richest Indians are succeeding in carving out an ever increasing share of the income pie for themselves.

About Post Author