At 35.7 pc, Haryana has highest unemployment rate, says CMIE

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 21

In its latest figures released as part of the unemployment rate report by the CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, May-August, 2021), Haryana is the most unemployed state followed by Rajasthan even as the Haryana Government dismissed these statistics and termed these as “fanciful”, maintaining that the NSSO data was the only official data on unemployment.

Report has irregularities: CM

The CMIE is a profit-oriented self-financing company and its decisions cannot be seen as “unbiased and transparent”. There are a number of irregularities in its data, design, questionnaire at a time when the report has pegged the unemployment rate at 28 per cent. Manohar Lal Khattar, cm on the floor of the house

CMIE sample size larger than NSSO’s

Our organisation’s sample size of 5,874 for Haryana compares very favourably with the NSSO’s data for 2019-20, which was 2,607. While for rural Haryana, it was 1,328, for urban sample, it was 1,279. It was unlikely, as claimed by some, that hardly anyone in Haryana has studied below Class X. Mahesh Vyas, CMIE, CEO

According to the CMIE report, the unemployment rate of Haryana is pegged at 35.7 per cent, while that of Rajasthan is 26.7 per cent. Rajasthan and Haryana are the only states to cross the 20 per cent mark in terms of unemployment and this is not the first time that Haryana has been placed at number one for its unemployment rate. Jharkhand is at third spot, with an unemployment rate of 16 per cent and all other states have a rate lower than this.

The unemployment rate stands at 39.69 among the graduates, at 32.9 per cent among those in the Class X to XII standard and at 11.84 per cent in the up to Class V category. While the unemployment rate is at 37.08 and 25.59 per cent in the urban and rural category, it stands at 25.27 (male) and 78.9 (female) per cent on the basis of gender.

The report also looks at unemployment rate in the various age groups. While 85.11 per cent are unemployed in the 20-24 age bracket, 36.07 per cent are unemployed in the 25-29 age group.

Sources in the CM office said the CMIE data plays out every three months, but the NSSO data is the official rate of unemployment and stands at around 11.7 per cent for Haryana. Released quarterly, an official explained that, for some reason, there was a large difference in the unemployment rates arrived at by the NSSO and the CMIE for some states.

Pointing out the shortcoming in the CMIE report which the government termed as “fanciful”, sources maintained that a sample size of 1,400 was too small to arrive at the unemployment rate of the state. Also, it takes into account housewives, even though they cannot be classified as “unemployed”.

The Parivar Pehchan Patra data itself has 9.6 lakh self-declared unemployed in the state. There are 2.6 lakh Saksham Yuva, Class X and 12 passouts and graduates, who are unemployed and provided work openings and financial assistance. “The CMIE data shows 2.68 lakh unemployed below Class X, whereas we hardly have anybody in this category. On this basis, they can’t work out a 35 per cent unemployment rate,” a senior official said.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, had himself refuted the CMIE report on unemployment on the floor of the House.

The CM had said that the CMIE was a profit-oriented self-financing company and its decisions could not be seen as “unbiased and transparent”. Among other things, the CM had stated that there were a number of irregularities in its data, design, questionnaire at a time when the report had pegged the unemployment rate at 28 per cent.

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