Unemployment on the rise

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, DEC. 25. Despite its industrialised status and large trading base, Maharashtra has not been able to generate enough jobs. The scope for employment, according to an official study, has, in fact, dropped in the private sector and remained static in the public sector.

Employment generation has not kept pace with economic development. Between 1992 and 1997, the rate of growth was a substantial 9.41 per cent but employment generation declined by about seven per cent, forcing the Government to consider promoting self-employment or involvement in tertiary sector.

Interestingly enough, the Government is considering a new labour policy even though there is no guarantee that it would generate enough jobs to reduce the number of unemployed persons.

Even the employment exchanges throughout the State have been unable to find jobs for the aspirants for the simple reason that not many jobs have been created. The economic implications have now begun to worry the Government.

Statistics show that in 1996, less than one per cent of the registered jobless persons found placements. In 1999, the figure came down to 0.39 per cent. In real numbers, about 22,000 persons find jobs as but this is clearly not enough to reduce the ranks of the educated unemployed.

In the private sector, since 1992 when the liberalisation process began to take shape, the number of jobs available and consequently filled dropped from 14.18 lakhs to 11.04 lakh in 1997. The trend is still continuing though in the public sector, there has been only a marginal fluctuation.

At present, about 43 lakh persons are registered with the employment exchanges.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Other States
Previous : TADA court gesture to detenus
Next     : Orissa launches ambitious village road scheme