News Highlight
The unemployment rate in urban areas for persons above the age of 15 eased to 7.2 per cent in July-September from 9.8% a year ago and 7.6% in the previous quarter.
Key Takeaway
- The data is according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
- The worker-population ratio (WPR) also witnessed a marginal increase compared with last year’s.
- The WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
What is Unemployment?
- Unemployment is a situation when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work.
Types of Unemployment
- Disguised Unemployment
- It is a phenomenon wherein more people are employed than needed.
- It is primarily traced to the agricultural and unorganised sectors of India.
- Seasonal Unemployment
- It is unemployment that occurs during certain seasons of the year.
- Agricultural labourers in India rarely worked throughout the year.
- Structural Unemployment
- It is a category of unemployment arising from the mismatch between the jobs available in the market and the skills of public workers.
- Many people in India do not get a job due to a lack of requisite skills, and due to poor education levels, it becomes difficult to train them.
- Cyclical Unemployment
- It is a result of the business cycle, where unemployment rises during recessions and declines with economic growth.
- Technological Unemployment
- It is the loss of jobs due to changes in technology.
- Frictional Unemployment
- Frictional Unemployment, also called Search Unemployment, refers to the time lag between jobs when an individual is searching for a new job or is switching between jobs.
- Vulnerable Employment
- This means people work informally without proper job contracts and thus sans legal protection. These persons are deemed ‘unemployed’ since records of their work are never maintained.
Causes of Unemployment
- Dominance of Agriculture
- Still, in India, nearly half of the workforce depends on Agriculture, mainly low productivity.
- However, Agriculture is underdeveloped in India.
- Immobility of Labour
- The mobility of labour in India is low. Due to attachment to the family, people do not go to far-off areas for jobs.
- Language, religion, and climate are also responsible for low mobility.
- Defects in Education System
- Jobs in the capitalist world have become highly specialised, but India’s education system does not provide the proper training and specialisation needed for these jobs.
- Rapid Growth of Population
- The constant increase in population has been a big problem in India.
- It is one of the leading causes of unemployment.
Government Initiative
- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA)
- It is an employment scheme launched in 2005 to provide social security by guaranteeing 100 days of paid work per year to all families whose adult members opt for unskilled labour-intensive work.
- This Act provides the Right to Work.
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
- It was launched in 2015 and had the objective of enabling a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skills training that will help them in securing a better livelihood.
- Start-up India Scheme
- It aims at developing an ecosystem that promotes and nurtures entrepreneurship across the country.
- Stand Up India Scheme
- It aims to facilitate bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore to at least one SC or ST borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise.
Way forward
- Drafting National Employment Policy
- The underlying principles for the National Employment Policy may include:
- Enhancing human capital through skill development.
- Supporting the private sector to become the principal investor in productive enterprises.
- Supporting self-employed persons by strengthening their capabilities to improve their earnings.
- Stimulate labour-intensive manufacturing sectors
- There are several labour-intensive manufacturing sectors in India, such as food processing, leather and footwear, wood manufacturers and furniture, textiles and apparel and garments.
- Special packages, individually designed for each industry, are needed to create jobs.
- Public investment
- Public investment in sectors like health, education, police and judiciary can create many government jobs.
- Focus on rural areas
- Development of the rural areas will help mitigate the migration of rural people to the urban areas, thus decreasing the pressure on the urban area jobs.
- Women participation
- Concrete measures are needed to remove the social barriers to women’s entry and their continuous participation in the job market.
Content Source: The Hindu