Wednesday, 09 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Haryana recorded the highest unemployment rate in the country at 37.4 percent followed by Rajasthan at 28.5 percent. Image Source: IANS
The urban unemployment also sharply increased to 10.09 percent in December 2022 from 8.92 percent in November 2022.
According to the latest data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India's unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent in December 2022, the highest in 16 months, from 8 per cent in the previous month. The urban unemployment also sharply increased to 10.09 percent in December 2022 from 8.92 percent in November 2022. On the other hand, a reverse trend was witnessed in the rural unemployment in the country as the rural unemployment dropped to 7.44 percent in December from 7.61 percent in November.
Mahesh Vyas, managing director of the CMIE, said the rise in the unemployment rate was "not as bad as it may seem" as it came on top of a healthy increase in the labour participation rate, which shot up to 40.48 percent in December, the highest in 12 months. He also pointed out that the employment rate has increased in December to 37.1 percent, the highest since January 2022.
The increase in unemployment coincides with a downturn in demand after a strong festive season. As higher interest rates reduce consumer demand for goods and services and exports decline, the Indian economy is predicted to stall. As inflation remained above the central bank's target range for the most of 2022, borrowing costs increased by 225 basis points last year.
This time, the unemployment rate in the states has drawn more attention than the rate of unemployment across the nation. Coming over to the unemployment in states, Haryana recorded the highest unemployment rate at 37.4 percent. The chart below shows the states with highest and lowest unemployment in December 2022.
Though the decrease in rural unemployment in December has brought a sigh of relief, taking a look at the unemployment in states shows the other side of the coin. Haryana recorded the highest unemployment rate in the country at 37.4 percent followed by Rajasthan at 28.5 percent. The national capital has also made it to the top three in terms of joblessness with an unemployment rate of 20.8 percent. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Odisha at just 0.9 percent followed by the state of Gujarat (2.3 percent) and Karnataka (2.7 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 rated highest and lowest in terms of unemployment are both BJP-ruled states – Haryana and Gujarat, respectively. Haryana has reported the unemployment rate of 37.4 percent while Bhupendrabhai Patel led Gujarat has the second lowest unemployment rate in the country at just 2.3 percent.
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.”
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 state governments, rather than dismissing such reports should focus on minimising the rate of unemployment and aim at providing job opportunities to the unemployed youth.
