Image Courtesy: People matters
According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s jobless rate rose to a 16-month high of 8.30% in December from 8.00% the previous month.
According to the CMIE data, the unemployment rate in urban areas increased to 10.09 percent in December from 8.96 percent the previous month while it decreased in rural areas to 7.44 percent from 7.55 percent.
Mahesh Vyas, managing director of the CMIE, told the news agency Reuters that the increase in the jobless rate was “not as awful as it may seem” because it came on top of a good growth in the labour force participation rate, which soared to 40.48 percent in December, the highest level in a year.
“Most importantly, the employment rate has increased in December to 37.1 percent, which again is the highest since January 2022,” he said.
Before the next round of national elections in 2024, controlling high inflation and providing jobs for millions of young people entering the labour force continue to be the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s primary challenges.
From the southern city of Kanyakumari to Srinagar, in the Jammu and Kashmir region, the main opposition Congress party began a five-month cross-country march in September to mobilise public opinion on issues like high prices, unemployment, and what it claims are the divisive politics of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party.
According to separate quarterly figures prepared by the state-run National Statistical Office (NSO) and released in November, the jobless rate decreased to 7.2 percent in the July-September quarter from 7.6 percent in the prior quarter.
According to CMIE data, the jobless rate in the northern state of Haryana increased to 37.4 percent in December, while it was 28.5 percent in Rajasthan and 20.8 percent in Delhi.
