Thursday, 10 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
The urban unemployment rate also increased sharply to 8.51 percent in March from 7.93 percent in February. Image Source: IANS
Haryana recorded the highest unemployment rate in the country at 26.8 percent followed by Rajasthan at 26.4 percent. The states of Haryana and Rajasthan were followed by the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir at 23.1 percent.
According to the latest data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India's unemployment rate rose to 7.8 percent in March 2023 from 7.45 percent in February. The urban unemployment rate also increased sharply to 8.51 percent in March from 7.93 percent in February. Similarly, an increase was also recorded in the rural unemployment rate in March as the joblessness rate in rural India increased from 7.23 percent in February to 7.47 percent in March.
Mahesh Vyas, Managing Director at CMIE said “India's labour markets deteriorated in March 2023. The unemployment rate increased from 7.5 percent in February to 7.8 percent in March. The effect of this is compounded by the simultaneous fall in the labour force participation rate, which fell from 39.9 percent to 39.8 percent.” He further added that this led to a fall in employment rate from 36.9 percent in February to 36.7 percent in March. The number of employed persons also dipped from 409.9 million to 407.6 million.
Among the states, the unemployment rate in March 2023 was highest in Haryana and Rajasthan. The rate of unemployment in Haryana was 26.8 percent, closely followed by Rajasthan at 26.4 percent, Jammu and Kashmir at 23.1 percent, Sikkim at 20.7 percent and Bihar at 17.6 percent. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh at 0.8 percent followed by Puducherry at 1.5 percent, Gujarat at 1.8 percent and Karnataka at 2.3 percent. Talking about states, the highest unemployment rate in the FY 2022-23 was recorded in Haryana in December at 37.40 percent.
Source: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy
Haryana recorded the highest unemployment rate in the country at 26.8 percent followed by Rajasthan at 26.4 percent. The states of Haryana and Rajasthan were followed by the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir at 23.1 percent. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh at just 0.8 percent followed by the union territory of Puducherry (1.5 percent) and Gujarat (1.8 percent). Analysing state wise data throws up a different story as the rate of unemployment is different for every state in India. Interestingly, the states with one of the highest and lowest unemployment rates are both Congress-ruled states – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, respectively. With a 25 percent unemployment rate, Rajasthan has a high unemployment rate. The unemployment rate was 23.8 percent in September 2022. The unemployment rate in rural areas was 23 percent, whereas it was higher in urban areas at 26 percent. As of mid-2018, the unemployment rate was roughly 6 percent. Over the next two years, it rose substantially to about 12 percent.
The unemployment rate in Rajasthan has exceeded 20 percent since late 2020. Compared to other urban areas of India, Rajasthan has substantially more competition for jobs. In addition, metropolitan Rajasthan has seen job pressure recently at a little higher rate than rural Rajasthan. But, Rajasthan hasn't been able to create enough jobs to keep up with the demand. With an unemployment rate of about 26 percent, Rajasthan is second only to Haryana.
Source: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy
Aswini Kumar Nanda, professor at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development pointed out 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.”
The lowest unemployment rate in FY 2022-23 was recorded in the month of September at 6.43 percent while the highest unemployment rate was recorded in December at 8.3 percent.
Aditya Mishra, HR Services Director and CEO at CIEL said that after the festive season of October- January, employment in retail, supply chain, logistics, financial services and e-commerce has declined. He added that, “Our sectors of IT, Technology and Startups have tightened their belts leading to a slowdown in fresh hiring. Thirdly, March being the month of financial year-end and examinations, the sectors of leisure travel, tourism, entertainment and hospitality are not witnessing high demand. These factors have reduced the employment drive. Manufacturing, engineering, construction and infrastructure have kept the job markets warm. The results of March are a combination of all these factors. We will see a pickup in April.”
Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-founder of TeamLease Services, said that the high rate of unemployment is reflective of pensive mood noticed in the current economic environment.
