Unemployment rate in the country is decreasing with the economy slowly returning to normal, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s monthly time series data revealed that the overall unemployment rate in India was 8.10 percent in February 2022, which fell to 7.6 percent in March.
On April 2, the ratio further dropped to 7.5 percent, with urban unemployment rate at 8.5 per cent and rural at 7.1 percent.
Retired professor of economics at Indian Statistical Institute Abhirup Sarkar said that though the overall unemployment rate is falling, it is still high for a “poor” country like India.
The decrease in the ratio shows that the economy is getting back on track after being hit by COVID-19 for two years, he said.
“But still, this unemployment rate is high for India, a poor country. Poor people, particularly in rural areas, cannot afford to remain unemployed, for which they are taking up any job which comes in their way,” Sarkar said.
According to the data, Haryana recorded the highest unemployment rate in March at 26.7 per cent, followed by Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir at 25 per cent each, Bihar at 14.4 per cent, Tripura at 14.1 per cent and West Bengal at 5.6 per cent.
In April 2021, the overall unemployment rate was 7.97 per cent and shot up to 11.84 per cent in May last year.
Karnataka and Gujarat registered the least unemployment rate at 1.8.per cent each in March 2022.
On Sunday, NITI Aayog vice-chairman
Rajiv Kumar said India was on the cusp of a major economic recovery. He said talks of possible stagflation are "overhyped" as a strong economic foundation is being laid with the reforms carried out by the government over the last seven years.
"India will remain the fastest growing economy and all the other economic parameters are actually quite within the range," Kumar said. "Given all the reforms that we have done in the last seven years, and given that we are seeing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic hopefully, and the 7.8 percent rate of growth that we will get this year (2022-23), a very strong foundation is now being laid for further rapid increase in economic growth in the coming years."
The latest FICCI’s Economic Outlook Survey on Sunday put forth an annual median
GDP growth forecast for 2022-23 at 7.4 percent -- with a minimum and maximum growth estimate of 6.0 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively.
