The unemployment rate in India rose to a four-year high in 2016-17 after the disastrous policy that was the demonetisation drive. As per a report in Business Standard, following the demonetisation of the old Rs 500 and the Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8, 2016, the unemployment rate stood at 3.9 per cent for the year 2016-17.
The report based on the Labour Bureau’s Sixth Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey suggests that the unemployment rate — the proportion of the labour force available for work but unable to get a job — rose from 3.4 per cent in 2013-14 to 3.7 per cent in 2015-16 to 3.9 per cent in 2016-17. The report also adds that the Labour Force Participation Rate — the proportion of the working-age population working or seeking jobs — rose from 75.5 per cent in 2015-16 to 76.8 per cent in 2016-17. Furthermore, the survey noted that women continued to exit the workforce, especially in rural areas.
As per the survey, unemployment was especially high in urban areas compared to the rural areas in 2016-17, adding that while the unemployment rate in rural women remained stable 4.7 per cent, for rural men it rose from 2.9 per cent in 2015-16 to a four-year high of 3.1 per cent in 2016-17. In urban India, however, joblessness among men rose from 3 per cent to 3.8 per cent in 2016-17, and among women, it went up from 10.8 per cent to 11.2 per cent.
Business Standard, in its report, also mentioned that they had examined extracts of the Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey that have been withheld from the public by the Labour and Employment Ministry despite Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar approving it in December. Reportedly the Labour Bureau won’t publish any further reports on employment and will now be replaced by the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) period labour force survey — The NSSO survey that will cover 2017-18 is yet to be released.
Also read: Demonetisation After-effects: Unemployment Rises to Two-year High, Labour Participation Rate Falls