Recently, videos of a massive queue, marked by pushing and shoving as people tried to get a toehold on a ramp leading to the entrance of a hotel where an interview for jobs was being held, went viral on social media. The railing of the ramp finally collapsed, leading to several people falling off, though no one was injured. The stampede-like situation emerged after some 800 people turned up for the walk-in interviews held by a firm for 40 vacancies in Ankleshwar in Gujarat's Bharuch district. Similar scenes unfolded outside
Mumbai airport, on July 17, when several thousand aspirants turned up for a few job openings for loader's posts. These incidents rekindled scenes witnessed earlier in Lucknow, where 48 lakh persons had applied for 60,000 jobs. As would be expected, a war of words ensued between the Opposition and the ruling BJP as soon as the images from Gujarat started doing the rounds. Congress president Rahul Gandhi was the first off the blocks. "The 'disease of unemployment' has taken the form of an epidemic in India and BJP-ruled states have become the 'epicentre' of this disease.The 'future of India' standing in queues for a common job is the reality of Narendra Modi's 'Amrit Kaal'," he said on X. BJP spokesperson Zafar Islam shot back sayingthat the Modi government has created 12.5 crore jobs contrary to the Opposition's claims against the government.
So, is India facing an employment crisis? According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Ltd. (CMIE’s) Consumer Pyramids Household Survey unemployment rate in India rose 9.2 per cent in June 2024 from 7 per cent in May 2024; as per India Employment Report 2024, India's working population increased from 61 per cent in 2011 to 64 per cent in 2021, and it is projected to reach 65 per cent in 2036. However, as per a report by Directorate General of Employment, India's unemployment rate decreased from 4.1 in 2021-22 to 3.2 in 2022-23. On the other hand, former Chief Economic Advisor Dr Kaushik Basu claimed that India's youth unemployment rate is among the highest in the world.
India now has a population of over 1.4 billion and, according to reports, an estimated 68 per cent of the population are in the working age group of 15 to 64. India is said to contribute the most to the global working-age population with around around 8 million joining the workforce every year. But are we creating enough jobs? The incidents in Gujarat and Mumbai do not inspire much confidence in this regard. Recently, a transnational bank published a research report on the economy. The report observed that India would need to grow faster than 7 per cent to create enough jobs for the young population. The Reserve Bank of India published the India KLEMS 2024 data saying India added 46.7 million jobs in 2023-24. This is a huge jump from the 19.1 million created in 2022-23 and 11.9 million in 2021-22. But the figures don’t match with other reports. The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises 2022-23, which, when compared with 2015-16, reveals a drop of over 5.4 million manufacturing jobs and in the total number of jobs in the unincorporated sector. Obviously, the differing claims expose gaps in data collection and leave one wondering which to believe. Until the body of data aligns the real picture on the unemployment status in the country cannot emerge; we have to per se live with the images coming out of Gujarat and Mumbai.
