India’s unemployment rate stood at 6.1% in FY18, official data showed, highlighting the challenge that confronts the Narendra Modi-led government. The data isn’t comparable with that of past years, the government contended, in effect seeking to refute previous leaked reports that said they showed the unemployment rate was at a 45-year high.
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) released on Friday showed the unemployment rate in the country in FY18 was at 5.3% in rural India and 7.8% in urban India, resulting in overall unemployment rate of 6.1%.
“It is a new design, new metric. It would be unfair to compare it with the past,” said chief statistician Pravin Srivastava.
Highest Unemployment Among Urban Females
“We can’t do a retrospective analysis based on the previous methodology — there was no (political) pressure,” said chief statistician Pravin Srivastava.
Source: The Economic Times
