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What the article is about?
- Talks about the employment problem and fault line beyond it.
Syllabus: GS-III Issues relating growth and development, employment
Declining Unemployment rate:
- As per the periodic labour force survey, urban unemployment during January-March 2021 had declined to the pre-Covid level of around 9 per cent, after peaking at 20.8 per cent during the first wave.
- As per CMIE, the unemployment rate in January 2022 stood at 6.57 per cent, down from the peak of 23.52 per cent in April 2020.
- It had stood at 7.76 per cent in February 2020 prior to the pandemic.
Deepened fault lines:
- India has witnessed a decline in the labour force participation rate.
- This implies that many have simply opted out of the labour force, perhaps put off by the absence of jobs.
- Unemployment rates are significantly higher among the youth and the more educated sections.
- As per surveys, the unemployment rate in the 15-29 age group stood at 22.9 per cent in January-March 2021.
- Along with the formalisation of labour, casualisation of employment continues.
- Casual wage labour employment lacks the social security framework that formal employment provides.
- Beyond the decline of the unemployment rate, an accurate gauge of labour market distress is difficult.
- Considering current per capita income levels, few can afford to stay unemployed for long.
- Many will simply opt for less productive jobs at lower wages.
Concerns:
- The growing mismatch between the demand and supply of jobs.
- The recent protests in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
- Demands by various caste groups for increasing reservation in public sector employment and expanding their scope to encompass the private sector.
- The lack of adequate and remunerative employment generation in the country, and the inability of the government to facilitate the creation of a labour-intensive manufacturing sector that can absorb the surplus labour force in agriculture and the millions entering the labour force each year.
Refer to the editorial analysis of 20th Jan 2022
