Mumbai: India’s unemployment rate has doubled in the eight years to 2018 with the higher educated and younger population accounting for the most without jobs, a new research by a privately run university shows.
After remaining at about 2 to 3 per cent during the decade to 2011, the unemployment rate in India has increased to more than 6 per cent in last year, a report posted by the nation’s Azim Premji University on its website shows. The numbers “clearly demonstrate why unemployment has emerged as the primary economic issue” in the federal elections that are underway, researchers led by Amit Basole said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking a reelection, has been criticized by the opposition for not fulfilling his promise of creating 10 million jobs each year — a promise that won him the hearts of India’s youth in the 2014 election. Better employment opportunities is the top priority of voters in the world’s fastest growing major economy, according to a survey by the Association for Democratic Reforms, an election watchdog.
The university’s report estimated that five million men lost their jobs since the government announced a cash ban in 2016, although no “direct casual relationship” can be established between the two based on these trends alone. Earlier this year, a leaked report from a government agency pegged jobless rate in the nation at a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent.- Bloomberg
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