Wednesday, 09 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Among the states, unemployment was the highest in Jammu and Kashmir at 21.8 percent, closely followed by Haryana at 21.7 percent and Rajasthan at 21.1 percent. Image Source: IANS
Before dropping to7.14 percent, the unemployment rate in the month of December 2022 stood at 8.30 percent which was highest in the last 16 months.
According to the latest data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India's unemployment rate dropped to 7.14 percent in January 2023, the lowest in four months, from 8.30 per cent in the previous month. Before dropping to7.14 percent, the unemployment rate in the month of December 2022 stood at 8.30 percent which was highest in the last 16 months. The urban unemployment rate also witnessed a decline from 10.09 percent in December to 8.55 percent in January 2023. Similarly, the rural unemployment rate also dropped from 7.44 percent in December to 6.48 percent in January.
Rituparna Chakraborty, TeamLease Services co-founder and executive vice president said, “It is safe to say that employment has improved over the last few quarters, however, we still have a long way to go given each year in absolute terms we have added nearly 20 million to the workforce making the gap wider day by day."
Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO and managing director at CIEL HR services said that the unemployment rate may continue to fall in the following months as this year’s budget has also focused on job creation in agritech, education, tourism, infrastructure, healthcare, financial services, healthcare, and MSME sectors.
Among the states, unemployment was the highest in Jammu and Kashmir at 21.8 percent, closely followed by Haryana at 21.7 percent and Rajasthan at 21.1 percent.
The unemployment rate is the proportion of people without a job. The status of the economy has an impact on the unemployment rate. If the economy is having trouble and there aren't as many jobs available, the employment rate will increase. Similar to this, it is expected that when a country's economy is robust, expanding, and providing the general public with a wide variety of job opportunities, the unemployment rate will decline. The chart below shows the states with highest and lowest unemployment in January 2023.
Source: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)
Though the decrease in unemployment in January has brought a sigh of relief, taking a look at the unemployment in states shows the other side of the coin. Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest unemployment rate in the country at 21.8 percent followed by Haryana at 21.7 percent. The national capital has also made it to the top five in terms of joblessness with an unemployment rate of 16.7 percent. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Chhattisgarh at just 0.5 percent followed by the state of Odisha (1.5 percent) and Tamil Nadu (1.8 percent). Analysing state wise data throws up a different story as the rate of unemployment is different for every state in India. Talking about Jammu and Kashmir, the unemployment rate in the union territory shows that efforts taken by the central government are not enough the combat the menace of unemployment. In spite of being under the direct administration of the central government and more than three years after the abrogation of article 370, job creation and employment remains a distant reality in the UT of J&K.
Coming over to Haryana, the state witnessed a drop in its unemployment rate from 37.4 percent in December to 21.7 percent in January. Haryana had also reported the highest unemployment rates in the country in August (37.3 percent) and October 2022 (31.7 percent). The Haryana government led by Manohar Lal Khattar had then dismissed the CMIE’s report and termed it as ‘fanciful.’ He further added that, “The CMIE is a profit-oriented self-financing company and its decisions cannot be seen as “unbiased and transparent.”
The issue of unemployment in Haryana was highlighted by Aswini Kumar Nanda, professor at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development. He said that, “Haryana continues to top the unemployment chart in the country due to the shared burden of the neighbouring states. Unemployment figures in Haryana are always on the higher side as it acts as a job magnet for the people in northern India. The burden of other states is accounted for in Haryana’s figures because of the large scale in-migration of job seekers.” But if this statement is to be considered then the question arises that why states like Maharashtra which witness mass migration have low unemployment rates.
According to the predictions made by various field experts, the unemployment rate is expected to fall in the coming months.
