PM speaks about an increase in job avenues for youth, data shows otherwise

Prime Minister Modi addresses youth employment opportunities in India, highlighting growth amidst global concerns and opposition criticism.

The doors of opportunities are now wide open for our youth around the world. Countless new employment opportunities, which had eluded us for so many years after independence, are now at their doorstep, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday while addressing the nation on the Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort.

Mr. Modi’s statement is considered important at a time when several reports, including the India Employment Report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) cautions policymakers about increasing unemployment rate in the country, particularly among youth.

Mr. Modi said possibilities have expanded, and new opportunities are being created. “The youth of my country no longer wish to move slowly. They do not believe in incremental progress. Instead, they are in the mood to take leaps, to achieve new milestones by making bold strides. I would like to say that this is a Golden Era for Bharat. Compared to global conditions also this is indeed our golden period,” he said.

Earlier this week, the ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024 report said young people around the world are unable to find secure work and their chances of finding a job decrease as the income level of the country they reside in decreases. The report found that the number of 15- to 24-year-olds who are not in employment, education or training is concerning, and that the post-COVID 19 pandemic employment recovery has not been universal. “Young people in certain regions and many young women are not seeing the benefits of the economic recovery,” the report had said.

In the country, the Opposition has been attacking the Centre not just over the increase in unemployment rate, but also on the unavailability of statistics on the job scenario. The National Statistical Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation used to release Employment and Unemployment surveys till 2011-12 and since 2017, the Periodic Labour Force Surveys replaced the Employment and Unemployment surveys. “India committed at the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians that we will have a comprehensive survey done based on the definitions of the ILO. But no pilot surveys were done despite a decision to do such a survey based on the ILO definitions,” said labour economist Santosh Mehrotra. “But despite that, the PLFS in 2017 came up with the highest unemployment rate in the country in the last 45 years,” Prof. Mehrotra added.

In the first PLFS found that the unemployment rate in rural areas, among males, for educated, between 2004-05 and 2011-12, ranged from 3.5 and 4.4% which rose to 10.5% during 2017-18. For educated rural females, unemployment rate ranged from 9.7 to 15.2% between 2004-05 and 2011-12 which rose to 17.3% in 2017-18. For educated males in urban areas, the unemployment rate ranged from 3.6 to 5.1% between 2004-05 and 2011-12 which rose to 9.2% during 2017-18. Among the educated females in urban areas, the unemployment rate ranged between 10.3% and 15.6% which rose to 19.8% in 2017-18. “There is no change in the approach towards this issue under the third Modi Government too. This situation is a policy induced shock,” Prof. Mehrotra said.

The Centre has been relying, of late, on the KLEMS (K: Capital, L: Labour, E: Energy, M: Materials and S: Services) database published by the Reserve Bank of India, which said the employment in the country increased to 64.33 crore in year 2023-24 compared to 47.5 crore in 2017-18. “Total increase in employment during 2017-18 to 2023-24 is about 16.83 crore,” the Labour Ministry said in Parliament.