According to a report, India’s unemployment rate for December was 8.3%, a 16-month high.
This is “not as bad as it may seem,” according to Mahesh Vyas, managing director of CMIE, as it came on top of a positive increase in the labour participation rate.
According to figures released today by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s jobless rate increased to 8.3% in December, the highest level in 16 months, from 8% in November.
According to the report, the jobless rate in urban areas increased to 10.09% in December from 8.96% the previous month while it decreased in rural areas to 7.44% from 7.55%.
The increase in the jobless rate, according to Mahesh Vyas, managing director of the CMIE, was “not as awful as it may seem” because it occurred on top of a positive rise in the labour participation rate, which soared to 40.48 per cent in December, the highest level in a year.
The employment rate increased in December to 37.1%, which is once again the best level since January 2022, he told Reuters.
Prior to the 2024 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration still faces significant challenges, including controlling high inflation and creating jobs for millions of young people joining the labour force.
In order to mobilise public opinion on issues like high prices, unemployment, and what it calls the “divisive politics” of the BJP, the main opposition Congress organised a march from Kanyakumari to Srinagar in September.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress and the man in charge of the 3,500-kilometer march on foot, told reporters yesterday that India needed to change its focus from a sole emphasis on GDP growth to growth with employment, youth skill development, and the development of production capacities with export prospects.
According to separate quarterly figures prepared by the National Statistical Office (NSO) and released in November, the unemployment rate decreased to 7.2% in the July-September quarter from 7.6% in the preceding quarter.
According to CMIE data, the jobless rate increased to 37.4% in Haryana in December, 28.5% in Rajasthan, and 20.8% in Delhi.