Unemployment level fails to fall in Bihar

About 8.3% working hands are unemployed in Bihar. This is 2.5 times more the national average of unemployment for the last fiscal, informs the labour bureau, a wing of the Union labour ministry.

About 8.3% working hands are unemployed in Bihar. This is 2.5 times more the national average of unemployment for the last fiscal, informs the labour bureau, a wing of the Union labour ministry.

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According to its latest report on annual employment and unemployment, 3.8% working hands were found to be unemployed nationally. Narendra Modiruled Gujarat happens to have the lowest level of unemployed persons aged between 15-59 years.

Even neighboring Jharkhand has an unemployment rate of 4.8%, just 1% above the national average. The report has been based on sample surveys conducted by the bureau in all districts of the country in cooperation with officials of the statistical department of respective state governments. The usual principal status approach worked out by the Centre for such assessments was used in the survey.

As per the data compiled on the basis of status of 10 to 12 families across all blocks nationally, 203 women and 58 men out of each 1,000 persons are unemployed. Senior joint director of finance and statistical department, Bihar, Jitendra Kumar Sinha, said more than 10,000 households were consulted in course of the survey conducted in the state last year.

The unemployment scenario, according to the state government officials, is particularly worrying for the state as it is much higher when compared to the national average. During the first annual survey (2010-11), Bihar's unemployment rate was assessed to be 16.8% when the national average was 9.4%. While at the national level, unemployment rate has come down to less than half, Bihar's case remains at the alarming levels.

Gujarat had 10% unemployment during fiscal 2010-11, while Jharkhand's unemployment rate was found to be 27.4%. Both the states have done extremely well to reduce the rate of unemployment by creating job opportunities in different sectors, including the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme.

Contrary to the common belief, socially disadvantaged groups are found to be better off nationally when compared with the general category on both the parameters of labour force participation rate (LFPR) as well as unemployment rate.

At the all India level, the usual principal status rates of participation in the labour force for the SC, ST, and OBC groups were 55.9%, 59.7% and 53.3% as against 48.5% for the general category, said the report.