The rate of of unemployment in India is the highest seen at least the last 20 years, according to the Centre for Sustainable Employment of the Azim Premji University.
“Unemployment levels have been steadily rising, and after several years of staying around 2-3 per cent, the headline rate of unemployment reached 5 per cent in 2015, with youth unemployment being a very high 16 per cent,” the State of Working India 2018 (SWI) report, said.
The Huffington Post reported that depressed wages is also a problem as 82 per cent of men and 92 per cent of women earn less than Rs. 10,000 per month, according to the Azim Premji University report. “Nationally, 67% of households reported monthly earnings of up to Rs 10,000 in 2015. In comparison, the minimum salary recommended by the Seventh Central Pay Commission (CPC) is Rs 18,000 per month. This suggests that a large majority of Indians are not being paid what may be termed a living wage, and it explains the intense hunger for government jobs,” the report stated. Besides that 90 per cent of the industries even in the organised manufacturing sector “pay wages below the CPC minimum. The situation is worse in the unorganised sector”.
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Unsurprisingly, the report noted that “a new feature of the economy is a high rate of open unemployment”. The rate is “now over five percent overall, and a much higher 16 per cent for the youth and the higher educated”.
“The increase in unemployment is clearly visible all across India, but is particularly severe in the northern states,” the report added.
The report, compiled by a group of researchers, policymakers, journalists and civil society activists, is based on the data from the National Sample Survey Office and the Employment-Unemployment Survey (EUS) of the Labour Bureau.
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