India’s unemployment rate

India's unemployment rate has risen to a three-month high of 7.8% in March amid concerns a global slowdown will hurt Asia’s third-largest economy. Whereas, the private sector plays a crucial role in job creation and economic growth, and their efforts to address the unemployment problem are important.

Collaboration between the private sector and the government is crucial in addressing the unemployment problem. This could include public-private partnerships aimed at promoting employment-intensive industries and creating an enabling environment for businesses to grow and create jobs.

Unemployment is a serious concern, as it not only affects individuals and families but also has wider economic and social implications. The uptick follows early signs of cooling demand in the $3.2 trillion economy, where policy makers have been battling runaway inflation like their peers in the rest of the world.

"India's labour markets deteriorated in March 2023. The unemployment rate increased from 7.5% in February to 7.8% in March. The effect of this is compounded by the simultaneous fall in the labour force participation rate, which fell from 39.9% to 39.8% , as per the report from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.

This led to a fall in the employment rate from 36.9% in February to 36.7% in March, this has led to the employment fell from 409.9 million to 407.6 million.

Among the states, unemployment was the highest in Haryana at 26.8% closely followed by Rajasthan at 26.4%, Jammu and Kashmir at 23.1%, Sikkim 20.7%, Bihar 17.6% and Jharkhand 17.5%.

Unemployment was the lowest in Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh at 0.8% each followed by Puducherry at 1.5%, Gujarat 1.8%, Karnataka 2.3% and Meghalaya and Odisha at 2.6% each.

As per the experts from CIEL, post the festive season of October-January, employment in retail, supply chain, logistics, financial services and e-commerce has declined.

The sectors of IT, Technology and Startups have tightened their belts leading to a slowdown in fresh hiring. Thirdly, March being the month of financial year-end and examinations, the sectors of leisure travel, tourism, entertainment and hospitality are not witnessing high demand.

Whereas Manufacturing, engineering, construction and infrastructure have kept the job markets warm. The results of March are a combination of all these factors. We expect a pickup in April. So, time will say. 

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA