Ab Sab Mumkin Hai: For The First Time in 24 Years, Decrease in No. of Men Who Are Working
According to the NSSO report that the Modi Govt has reportedly tried to bury.
For the first time since 1993-94, India’s male workforce, or the number of men who are working, has registered a sharp decline, reportedly according to the data from NSSO’s Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18.
Per a report by Jay Mazoomdaar in The Indian Express, a shrinking workforce means a decrease in the absolute number of people employed.
According to the PLFS Survey as reviewed by IE, Male workforce steadily rose from 21.9 crore in 1993-94 to 30.4 crore in 2011-12.
Also Read: Unemployment Among Educated Persons Grew Sharply Under The Modi Govt: NSSO Report
But, come 2017-18, this dropped to about 28.6 crore male are employed in the country, according to data from the NSSO’s Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18, reported IE.
This means that more men were employed in 2011-12 than were employed in 2017-18, an extremely worrying finding, given India’s population growth.
Overall, the survey has reported a 6.1 per cent unemployment rate, which is the highest in 45-years.
The decline in the actual number of men in the workforce is more in rural areas (6.4 per cent), compared to urban areas (4.7 per cent). The unemployment rate for rural men is 5.8 per cent and the rate for urban men is 7.1 per cent, according to the PLFS report.
The IE report added that according to experts, this clearly points at job losses and lack of new employment opportunities.
Also Read: India’s Unemployment Rate Rises to 7.2% in February: CMIE
As per NSSO data, there was employment loss of 4.3 crore in rural areas (from 30.9 crore in 2011-12 to 26.6 crore in 2017-18) and 0.4 crore in urban areas (from 11.1 crore in 2011-12 to 10.7 crore in 2017-18). This means that nationally, India’s workforce shrunk by 4.7 crore, reported IE. It added that In rural areas women have suffered more (68 per cent) in terms of employment loss. In urban areas men suffered more (96 per cent) job losses.
The NSSO report is yet to be officially released. Earlier in January, two members of the National Statistical Commission including the Acting Chairperson of PC Mohanan and JV Meenakshi had resigned. They had cited that the Narendra Modi-led government had withheld the data on employment, even after the commission had approved it back in December 2018.