Unemployment Rate in India at 45-year High
The unemployment rate has hit a 45 year high at 6.1% in India for 2017-2018 and the countries economy slowed down to growth of 5.8% lowest in 2 years.
In January the Business Standard newspaper had leaked that the unemployment rate in India was at 6.1% in 2017-2018, The Statistics Ministry released the data a day after PM Modi was sworn-in, thus confirming what the newspaper had reported.
This percentage is the highest it has been in 45 years, Chief Statistician Pravin Sriwastave told reporters that the new system they are using to collect data cannot be compared with the data from old surveys and is not fair.
The ministry also shared data that shows female employment in urban areas ending December 2018 was at 19.5% of women were employed in urban areas compared to 73.6% males, The Economy grew at a rate of 5.8% in the January-March 2019, this is the slowest in nearly 2 years. It caused India to fall behind China for the first time in 2 years.
The Opposition and Congress have said these figures have been suppressed due to elections and should have been released earlier. Due to this, two members of the National Statistical Commission had to resign. This organisation is government-funded and checks the quality of the data collected by the National Survey Office.
