The unemployment rate stood at 7.4 per cent for the week ended April 22, according to the latest data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The rate is the highest in two years.
The rate of unemployment, which stood at 4 per cent in May 2017 increased to 5.1 per cent in May 2018. According to the data, the same rate jumped to 7.41 per cent in the third week of April this year.
Not just this, the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and the Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which have been Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s favourite source as on many occasions to defend its government’s record of poor jobs, have also shown a rise in unemployment.
“According to EPFO and ESIC data, we have created 1 million jobs every month and 12 million jobs every year. In the last 4 years, 5.5 million new subscribers have joined NPS (the pension scheme). Approximately, 10 million people are benefitting from employment generation programs…” PM Modi had said in an interview with Hindustan Times.
However, according to the latest payroll data released by the ESIC, employment generation dropped from 15.30 lakh in February last year to 15.03 lakh in the same month this year, which is a drop by 1.73 percent.
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Even the EPFO indicates that the employment rate has been dropping every month. Right from October 2018 to April 2019, fall in employment generation has been recorded every month, barring November 2018 which witnessed a slight rise of 1,262 jobs on average.
As reported by News Central 24×7, the October 2018 release (September 2017-August 2018) showed a monthly average of 6.10 lakh jobs created. The November release reported an average monthly increase of 1,262 more jobs only. The December release (Sept 14-Oct 18), the average monthly job creation fell to 5.65 lakh jobs per month.
In the January 2019 release (Sep 17-Nov 18), average monthly job creation spiralled down to 4.90 lakh jobs per month. Dipping further to 4.52 lakh jobs a month, the February release (Sep 17-Dec 18) continued to register the downward trend in job creation. In the March 2019 release (Sep 17-Jan 18)average monthly job creation fell to 4.50 lakh jobs per month, News Central 24×7 reported.
The EPFO report further stated that according to the latest release (Sep 17-Feb 19) the monthly average job creation fell to 4.49 lakh jobs a month, a 26 per cent drop since the October 2018 release of EPFO.
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