The Union Government on Monday refutes the recent research report by Citigroup on Employment in India which forecasts that India will struggle to create sufficient employment opportunities even with a 7% growth rate.
Ministry of Labour and Employment said that it strongly rebuts such reports which do not analyse all official data sources available in the public domain, and fails to account for the comprehensive and positive employment data available from official sources such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Reserve Bank of India’s KLEMS data.
The ministry said that the official data sources like PLFS, RBI, EPFO, etc. show consistent improvements in the key labour market indicators, including increased Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) and Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and a declining Unemployment Rate during last five years.
EPFO and NPS data further support the positive employment trends. The trends in manufacturing, expanding service sector, infrastructure growth, apart from others, including emerging opportunities in multiple sectors such as gig and platform economy and GCCs indicate robust future prospects.
Ministry of Labour said it emphasizes the credibility and comprehensiveness of official data, cautioning against the selective use of private data sources that can lead to misleading conclusions about India’s employment scenario.
According to PLFS and RBI’s KLEMS data, India has generated more than 8 crore (80 million) employment opportunities from 2017-18 to 2021-22. This translates to an average of over 2 crore (20 million) employment per year, despite of the fact that the world economy was hit by COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-21 which contradicts Citigroup’s assertion of India’s inability to generate sufficient employment, the ministry highlighted.
It also said that during 2023-24, over 1.3 crore subscribers joined EPFO which is more than double compared to 61.12 lakh joined EPFO during 2018-19. Moreover, during last six and half years (since September, 2017 to March, 2024) more than 6.2 crore net subscribers have joined EPFO.
The Annual PLFS report said the labour force participation has also increased in the country from 49.8% in 2017-18 to 57.9% in 2022-23. The Unemployment Rate has declined from 6.0 % in 2017-18 to a low of 3.2% in 2022-23.
The PLFS data shows that during the last 5 years, more employment opportunities have been generated compared to the number of people joining the labour force, resulting in a consistent reduction in the unemployment rate.
This is a clear indicator of the positive impact of government policies on employment. Contrary to the report, which suggests a dire employment scenario, the official data reveals a more optimistic picture of the Indian job market, the ministry said.
It said that the data from National Pension System (NPS) indicates that more than 7.75 lakh new subscribers have joined the NPS during 2023-24 under the Central and State governments which is 30% more than 5.94 lakh new subscribers joining NPS under government sector during 2022-23.
