Mumbai: State of Working India (SWI) 2019 report was released by the Azim Premji University on Tuesday. As per the report, 50 lakh men lost their jobs between the years 2016 and 2018. It added, “The beginning of the decline in jobs coinciding with demonetisation in November 2016, although no direct causal relationship can be established based only on these trends.”
The report says the unemployment has risen steadily post 2011. The overall unemployment rate to be around 6 per cent in 2018, almost double of what it was in the decade from 2000 to 2011. The unemployed across the country are mostly higher educated and the young.
According to the report, women are worse off than men with respect to unemployment as well as reduced labour force participation. The hardest hit by demonetisation and introduction of goods and services tax (GST) was the Informal sector.
Among urban women, graduates are 10 per cent of the working age population but 34 per cent of the unemployed. For the age group 20-24 years is hugely over-represented among the unemployed. Among urban men, this age group accounts for 13.5 per cent of the working age population but 60 per cent of the unemployed.
Graduate men (rural) are around 7 per cent of the working age population but over 20 per cent of the unemployed whereas among rural women, graduates form a mere 3.2 per cent of the working age population. However, they make up 24 per cent of the unemployed population.
The report also points out: “The open unemployment in India today is largely a concern for those under 35 years of age and those who are educated beyond Class 10, and particularly beyond Class 12.
The report raises concerns that the last three years have been one of great turmoil in the Indian labour market as well as in the system of labour statistics.
Earlier this year, a leaked report from a Government agency – NSSO pegged jobless rate in the country at a 45-year high of 6.1 percent.