Prayagraj’s unemployment rate highest in country, 1.5 lakh unemployed in govt records

Prayagraj, or the erstwhile Allahabad, tops this unemployment list with an unemployment rate of 8.9%.

It’s no mere coincidence that Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj has the dubious distinction of being the city with the highest unemployment rate in the country. Government record shows that a whopping 1.5 lakh unemployed youth are in the queue of those hunting jobs which are few and far in between.

The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in its recent report had listed the rate of unemployment in 45 cities that have a million or more residents. (sewayojan.up.nic.in)

The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in its recent report had listed the rate of unemployment in 45 cities that have a million or more residents. Prayagraj, or the erstwhile Allahabad, tops this unemployment list with an unemployment rate of 8.9%. This NSSO’s Periodic Labour Force Survey for the period July 2017 to June 2018 was released by the government on May 31, 2019.

The status of unemployment in Prayagraj can be gauged from the fact that at present around 1,47,561 unemployed are registered with the Regional Employment Office, Prayagraj. These includes 1,19,663 men and 27,878 women. However the list of individuals bagging jobs is very brief. One factor, officials say, is the fact that a large number of government recruitment drives are stuck in litigations while in the private sector, mere 337 have managed to bag a job, records of the Regional Employment Office, Prayagraj shows.

Assistant director of Regional Employment Office, Prayagraj Ratnakar Asthana conceded that low count of youths who have found jobs here but shared that the office organised four ‘Rozgar Melas’ or employment fairs just this year already and the 337 youths who bagged jobs have succeeded by getting employment through these very fairs. The latest of these fair was organised on August 29 in which well known firms like Eureka Forbes, Swiggy, Pukhraj Healthcare and NIIT participated and selected 143 unemployed individuals for jobs.

Post being made ‘Mandatory’ registrations rise by 30%

The state government has made registration at the employment portal mandatory for all seeking a job in Uttar Pradesh. UP Chief secretary Anoop Chyandra Pandey in his order dated June 26, 2019 made registration for jobs mandatory. Since then, 3189 unemployed youth including 2313 men and 876 women registered from Prayagraj on the portal in July 2019 while another 3194 youth including 2357 men and 837 women registered from Prayagraj on the portal in August 2019. Before the GO, mere 112 unemployed had registered on the portal from Prayagraj clearly establishing the impact of the government order on the registrations on the employment portal.