Unemployment crisis

The number of jobless youth who have registered with employment exchanges in Himachal Pradesh stands at 8,82,269. It’s a staggering figure, but the actual number would be much higher because many youth have not bothered to get registered, and there would be others who have returned to their home state after losing their jobs in different parts of the country. According to the opposition parties, the actual figure is 14 lakh, while the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) pegs the unemployment rate at 11.7%. The situation is similar in Jammu & Kashmir (13.2%) and Punjab (9%), but it’s alarmingly high in Haryana at 31%. The unemployment rate in these states is much higher than the national average, 8.1% at February-end.

These numbers are frightening, and they explain the unrest among youth and protests carried out by the unemployed or underemployed in the region. The crisis has acquired monstrous proportions, as evidenced by the applications for three posts of peon in the district court in Jind, Haryana, recently — thousands of candidates applied, including some with BTech and MTech degrees. These numbers also explain the rhetoric of political parties and populist but short-sighted measures adopted by various governments, such as the Haryana Government’s promise of 75% reservation for local people in low paid private jobs.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic crippled business and caused retrenchments, the job market had been contracting — the survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office in 2017-18 showed that unemployment stood at 6.1%, the highest since 1972-73. With the pandemic wreaking havoc on the system, generating jobs has become a huge, unmanageable challenge. Though the Indian Government has focused on self-reliance, the fact is that our dependence on imports remains very high — for instance, India’s imports from China rose 46.1% from $66.7 billion in 2020 to $97.5 billion in 2021. India’s trade deficit with China is at a record high of $69.4 billion, up from $45.9 billion in 2020 and $56.8 billion in 2019. Unfortunately, with single-digit growth forecast for the foreseeable future, things look bleak for the unemployed youth.

Also read: 8.82 lakh unemployed in Himachal Pradesh, job creation a challenge for govt in poll year

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