Amid the Opposition’s claims of joblessness and unemployment hitting a new high, the latest findings on labour force data have come as a shot in the arm for the Centre.
As per the report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), jobs and employment opportunities have seen a consistent uptrend in the past 6.5 years of the Modi government.
The growth parameters in terms of jobs, postings and employment opportunities have recorded a rise while the Unemployment Rate (UR) has consistently gone down. This has been found under three key jobs data pools including – PLFS, EPFO and National Career Service (NCS).
Various tools of PLFS including the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) and Worker Population Ratio (WPR) have logged consistent rise over the past 6 years while the Unemployment Rate (UR) chart shows a constant decline.
The positive trend over the years, promises much hope in ‘gloomy times’, a charge reiterated by the opposition parties.
The LFPR, defined as the percentage of persons in the labour force, was recorded at 49.8 per cent in the financial year 2017-18 and this rose to 57.9 per cent in FY 2022-23.
Similarly, WPR, defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population, was recorded at 46.8 per cent in FY 2017-18, which in turn rose to 56 per cent in FY 2022-23.
During the same period, the unemployment rate dropped from 6 per cent to 3.2 per cent.
The labour market trend for female workers also shows a positive trend.
LFPR, for women workers, was recorded at 23.3 per cent in FY 2017-18, which rose to 37 per cent in FY 2022-23 while WPR saw a rise from 22 per cent to 35.9 per cent for the same period.
The unemployment rate for women workers also saw a decline from 5.6 per cent to 2.9 per cent in the period from 2017-2023.
The comprehensive set of data has been shared by the Bluekraft Digital Foundation CEO on his X handle.
As per the Employment Provident Fund Organization (EFPO) data, a total of 6.1 crore individuals joined formal jobs during the past 6.5 years.
National Career Service (NSC) records say that over 1 crore job postings were offered in FY 2023-24 alone.
Earlier, the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) was the only tool to measure jobs data, however, with many tools launched under the Modi dispensation, one gets a fair account of the rise and fall in jobs data, over the years.
PLFS was launched by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in April 2017 for collating labour force data at regular intervals while National Career Service (NCS) was launched in 2015 to replace the then Employment Exchanges and equipped with the I-T enabled careers services, for easy and quick service.