India's unemployment rate increased to 8.30 percent in December, the highest in 16 months, from 8 percent in the previous month, data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed on Sunday. CIME also revealed that the urban unemployment in the country rate increased from 8.96 percent in November 2022 to 10.09 percent in December, while the rural unemployment rate dropped from 7.55 percent to 7.44 percent in the same duration.
Mahesh Vyas, Managing Director of CMIE, said this increase in India’s unemployment rate was "not as bad as it may seem," as it came on top of a healthy rise in the labour participation rate, which shot up to 40.48 percent in December, the highest in 12 months.
Vyas added, “Most importantly, the employment rate has increased in December to 37.1 percent, which again is the highest since January 2022.”
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Ahead of national elections in 2024, containing high inflation and creating jobs for millions of young people entering the job market remains the biggest challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration.
Congress, India’s main opposition party, launched a five-month-long cross-country march in September from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir region, to mobilise public opinion on issues such as high prices and unemployment. The party also claims that these issues are the divisive politics of Modi's Bharatiya Janata party.
Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of the Congress party, told, ”India needs to move from a single focus on GDP growth to growth with employment, skilling of youth and creating production capacities with export prospects.” Gandhi is also leading the party's 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) march on foot.
According to quarterly data compiled by the state-run National Statistical Office (NSO) in November, the unemployment rate had declined to 7.2 percent in the July-September quarter compared to 7.6 percent in the previous quarter.
In December, the unemployment rate rose to 37.4 percent in the northern state of Haryana, followed by 28.5 percent in Rajasthan and 20.8 percent in Delhi, CMIE data showed.
(With input from Reuters)
(Edited by : Vivek Dubey)
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