By: Yash Gupte
India’s unemployment rate fell further from 8.28 percent in August 2022 to 6.43 percent in September 2022, according to the latest figures released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)
India’s formal and informal sector job sector has shown growth and resilience while we battled a pandemic and slackness brought about by global slowdown due to Russia-Ukraine war.
India’s unemployment rate fell further from 8.28 percent in August 2022 to 6.43 percent in September 2022, according to the latest figures released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The unemployment rate declined in both urban (7.70 percent in September as compared to 9.57 percent in August) and rural sectors (5.84 in September as compared to 7.68 in August).
The overall decline in the unemployment was reported in state-wise figures as well. According to the data, states like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu had a lower employment rate compared to August 2022. However, Telangana, Punjab, Karnataka and Kerala had a marginal increase in unemployment rate in the month of September as compared to August 2022. Although, none of the states reported a sharp increase or decrease in their unemployment rate.
Source: CMIE
However, there is another side of the story as well. While it is true that unemployment figures have gone down, the figures are still alarming. Take Rajasthan for instance. The desert state had a whopping 23.8 percent unemployed population, the highest in the country, while Jammu and Kashmir’s unemployment rate was 23 percent. States like Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal had a double-digit unemployment rate.
Analysing state wise data throws up a different story as the rate of unemployment is different for every state in India. Interestingly, the states rated highest and lowest in terms of unemployment are both Congress-ruled states – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, respectively. Rajasthan has reported the unemployment rate of 23.8 percent while Bhupesh Baghel led Chhattisgarh has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at just 0.1 percent.
The decrease in unemployment rate good rainfall and harvesting season. Unemployment rate had increased in August due to the irregular and erratic rains which affected the sowing activities in rural India and made most of the population unemployed in rural areas.
Why case of Rajasthan
The high unemployment rate is a wake-up call for the Ashok Gehlot government. Unemployment remains one of the major reasons for the growing anger in the mind of people against Ashok Gehlot. Recently, C-Voter conducted a nationwide survey on the popularity of union as well as state governments. The survey found that 46.6 percent of the total respondents were angry with the state governance, 34.8 percent with the central governance and 18.6 percent with the local governance.
The survey also revealed a mass discontent for chief minister Ashok Gehlot. Over 35% of the respondents surveyed said that they were angry with him. If the surveys are to be believed, the incumbent Congress government will face a tough task in the next assembly polls scheduled in 2023.