Unemployment numbers rose from 2014 to 2024: Congress questions government claims about job creation

On Monday, Congress questioned the government’s claims about job creation data, adding that no spin doctor could detract from the fact that there was an increase in “job losses” between 2014 and 2024.

The Congress has said that there will be a decline of 12 lakh jobs in key sectors such as education in 2020-21. (photo in PTI file)

Reference was made to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) KLEMS (an acronym for capital, labour, energy, materials and services) report released in July, which showed that around 80 crore new jobs have been created in the last three-four years. years.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited the same report in which he rejected the opposition’s claims of widespread unemployment.

Citing the content of the report, Congress said the current regulation equates unpaid domestic work with work performed by women as “employment” that does not create a new job.

“Much of the claimed increase in employment relates to unpaid domestic work performed by women. This is not creating new jobs,” he said.

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“The headline ’80 million new jobs’ also evades any discussion about job quality. In the face of the poor economic climate, the share of formal paid employment in the labor market has declined. Workers are moving to low-productivity informal and agricultural jobs, which KLEMS sees as jobs being created,” Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.

He added that KLEMS data shows employment growth during the years of the Covid-19 pandemic, when large sectors of the economy came to a complete standstill.

“While key sectors like education created 12 lakh fewer jobs in 2020-21, as many as 1.8 crore jobs were created in agriculture,” he said.

Calling low-paid work an economic travesty, the senior Congress leader argued that “factory workers, teachers, miners who returned home during Covid-19 and had to go back to agriculture and agricultural work are recorded as ‘jobs created’ in agriculture.” .

“This shift to low-productivity, low-paid jobs is an economic travesty that the government is touting as an achievement,” he said.

Questioning the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) data, a key parameter of job creation in the formal sector, the Congress said that while “the government has cited the addition of 6.2 crore net subscribers to the EPFO database to show record employment growth, the EPFO covers only the organized sector or less than 10% of total employment.

The Congress took notice of the Supreme Court’s 2020 judgment that asked the EPFO to include contract workers in every establishment employing more than 20 people and as a result.

“The EPFO data currently includes a significant number of workers who were already employed – these are not new jobs,” Ramesh said.

Continuing his criticism of the government’s alleged spin doctoring, Ramesh said the unemployment rate in the country remained high.

“No matter what statistical juggling they engage in, the truth remains: India’s unemployment rate today is the highest in 45 years, and the unemployment rate among young graduates is 42%,” he said.

A response from the government is awaited and the copy will be updated as it is received.