It is very surpersing in India that unemployment issue has been sent in door and issues not related to hungry youth of India is being put foreward. The comparative study of employment and unemployment during NDA vs UPA is very interesting in this context. We would like to put some interesting figures and facts to represent my view on the issue. Vidyanand Acharya
Household and Population*About 70 per cent of the households in India belonged to the rural areas and
accounted for about 73 per cent of the total population.
*The average household size in India was about 4.4. It was about 4.6 in rural
India and about 4.1 in urban India. The sex ratio (females per 1000 of males) in
India was 936. It was 947 in rural India and 909 in urban India.
* About 12 per cent of households in both the rural and urban areas were headed
by females. Compared to all households, they had, on an average, a relatively
smaller household size (about 3.2 in rural areas and about 3.1 in urban areas) and
a much higher sex-ratio (about 1785 in rural areas and about 1808 in urban
Among those households having at least one member of age 15 years and above,
about 5 per cent in the rural areas and 10 per cent in the urban areas had no
usually employed member of age 15 years and above.
* The population in the age group 15-59 years comprised about 59 per cent of the
rural males and 61 per cent rural females. In the urban areas, about 66 per cent
each of the males and females belonged to this age group.
*In the rural areas, during 2009-10, about 71 per cent of males and 53 per cent of
the females were literate. The corresponding proportions, in the urban areas,
were 84 per cent and 74 per cent.
Labour Force* to the usual status (ps+ss), about 56 per cent of rural males and 27
per cent of rural females belonged to the labour force. In the urban areas, the
corresponding proportions were 56 per cent of males and 15 per cent for
females.
* During the period 2004-05 to 2009-10, the LFPRs according to usual status
(ps+ss) remained almost the same for rural males but decreased by about 6
percentage points for rural females. During that period, LFPRs according to
usual status (ps+ss) decreased by about 1 percentage point for the urban males
and decreased by about 3 percentage points for the urban females.
Work Force* 39 per cent of the population in the country was usually employed. The
proportion was 41 per cent in the rural and 35 per cent in the urban.
* gender differential in the worker population ratio (WPR) was distinct. The
WPR for rural males was 55 per cent while it was 26 per cent for rural females.
In the urban areas, it was 54 per cent for males and 14 per cent for females.
* daily status rates were slightly lower than the current weekly status rates,
which, in turn, were slightly lower than the usual status rates. The current
weekly status WPR was 53 per cent for rural male, 22 per cent for rural females,
54 per cent for urban males and 13 per cent for urban females. The current daily
status rates were 50 per cent, 18 per cent, 52 per cent and 12 per cent for rural
males, rural females, urban males and urban females, respectively.
* the usually employed (ps+ss), about 54 per cent of the rural males and
56 per cent of rural females were self-employed. In the urban areas,
corresponding proportions were 41 per cent for both males and females. In the
urban areas, about 42 per cent of the usually employed males and 39 per cent of
the usually employed females were regular salaried/wage employees.
* Between 2004-05 and 2009-10, in the rural areas, WPR in the usual status
approach remained almost the same for the males and decreased by about 7
percentage points for the females. In the urban areas, the rates decreased by
about 1 percentage point for the males and 3 percentage points for the females.
* In rural India, the proportion of usually employed (ps+ss) male workers engaged
in the agricultural activities declined gradually from 81 per cent in 1977-78 to 63
per cent in 2009-10 whereas for the female workers, the decline was less - from
88 per cent to 79 per cent during the same period.
* urban India, the ‘trade, hotel and restaurant' sector engaged about 27 per cent
of the usually employed (ps+ss) male workers while each of ‘manufacturing’
and ‘other services’ sector accounted for nearly 22 per cent of them. On the
other hand, among the usually employed urban females, ‘other services’ sector
HighlightsNSS Report No. 537: Employment and Unemployment Situation in India, 2009-10
accounted for the highest proportion (39 per cent), followed by ‘manufacturing’
(28 per cent).
* proportion of urban females employed in ‘other services’ sector increased
from 36 per cent in 2004-05 to 39 percent in 2009-10 and the ‘agriculture’ sector
revealed a fall in its share by about 4 percentage points during this period.
Unemployment Rate* unemployment rate (number of person unemployed per 1000 persons in the
labour force), according to usual status (ps+ss), was 16 in the rural areas and 34
in the urban areas. It was 57 for urban females, 28 for urban males and 16 for both
males and females in the rural areas.
* unemployment rates according to the current daily status (cds) approach are
higher than the rates obtained according to usual status approach and weekly
status approach, thereby indicating a high degree of intermittent unemployment.
The unemployment rate according to the current weekly status (cws) approach was
33 in rural areas and 42 in the urban areas.
During the period 2004-05 and 2009-10, the unemployment rate in terms of the
usual status (ps+ss), remained almost the same for rural males and decreased by 1
percentage point for urban males. For rural females also it remained almost the
same whereas for urban females it decreased by 1 percentage point.
In both the rural and urban areas, unemployment rate among the educated
(secondary and above) persons of age 15 years and above was higher than that
among those whose education level was lower than secondary: for usual status
(ps+ss), unemployment rate among the educated was 4 per cent for each of rural
and urban males while it was 12 per cent for each of rural and urban female.
* unemployment rate was much higher among the youth (15-29) as compared
to that in the overall population. According to the usual status (ps+ss),
unemployment rate among the youth was 5 per cent each for male and female in
rural areas, 8 per cent for urban male and 14 per cent for urban female.
* Among the educated youth (age:15-29 years and level of education: secondary
and above), the unemployment rate was predominantly high in both the rural and
urban areas. According to the usual status (ps+ss), the rates were 8 per cent for
rural males, 18 per cent for rural females, 10 per cent for urban males and 23 per
cent for urban females.
