Conflicting reports and statements
Recently, citing a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report that said that 8 crore jobs have been created in the last 3-4 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Opposition of creating false narratives about unemployment
Mr. Modi quoted a RBI ‘Data Manual’ released on July 7, called ‘The India KLEMS Database’, which “...describes the procedures, methodologies and approaches used in the construction of India KLEMS database version 2024
Soon after the RBI released this, the State Bank of India (SBI) came out with its own report to counter the financial institutions’ reports.
It said, “Even if we exclude Agriculture, the total number of jobs created in manufacturing and services is at 8.9 crore during FY14-FY23 and 6.6 crore during FY04-FY14.”
It added, “The total labour force in India is at 59.7 crore, which is nearly equivalent to 56.8 crore as per the recently released ASUSE [Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises] survey”
However, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a private data-gathering agency which publishes data on employment and unemployment, reported that in June 2024, the unemployment rate had risen to an eight-month high of 9.2% up from 7% in the previous month
This was contrary to the official narrative of massive employment generation.
Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)
It is a survey conducted by the NSO under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to measure the employment and unemployment situation in India.
The NSO launched the PLFS in April 2017.
Objective of PLFS:
To estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the ‘Current Weekly Status’ (CWS).
To estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both ‘Usual Status’ and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually
Differences in PLFS and CMIE
The CMIE adopts the International Labour Organization definition and counts only those who get an income from work as employed.
PLFS counts those who are working even if they do not get an income from it.
So, those giving free labour or those who sit in fields but have no work also get counted as employed by PLFS.
Consequently, in the last few years, PLFS has given around 50%-55% labour force participation, while CMIE says the figure stands at 40%-45%.
That means there is a huge difference of about 90 million between the two.
PLFS counts the disguised unemployed and the under-employed.
So, as far as PLFS is concerned, almost no one is unemployed, while CMIE tells us how many have simply given up looking for work. That is also unemployment, which the official data do not recognise.
COMMENTS