In a worrying trend the unemployment rate in J&K touched a new low with 22.2% in the UT jobless the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), revealed.
According to the CMIE’s “30 day moving average” survey for the month of October, J&K’s 22.2 percent unemployment rate is the third-worst recorded unemployment rate among other states & union territories in India.
The erstwhile state’s 22.2 percent unemployment rate was succeeded by the states of Rajasthan and Haryana where the unemployment rate stood at 29.6 percent and 30.7 percent, respectively.
Notably, at the beginning of 2021, J&K’s unemployment rate was 21.9 percent which dipped to 14.2 per cent in February, 9.5 percent in March, 11.4 per cent in April, 11.9 per cent in May and 10.6 per cent in June, 15.4 percent in July and 13.6 percent in the month August.
Though the J&K’s unemployment rate, as per CMIE, had witnessed a decline since January 2021 till August 2021, it took an ugly turn in the month of September when it surpassed the national average of unemployment.
Using the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey machinery, CMIE has pegged India’s unemployment rate at 7.7 percent which itself ascertains the fact that the erstwhile state of J&K has much higher unemployment rate than the national average.
According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), the combined unemployment rate of J&K and Ladakh had hit the highest of 17.8 percent in October-December, 2020, against the national average of 7.11 percent.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy had put the unemployment rate at 12.13 percent in J&K in 2017 and since the 2018 fall of the coalition government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP in J&K, job availability has taken a significant hit.
As per the National Statistical Office (NSO)’s latest report, “Annual Report, Periodic Labour Force Survey(PLFS),” for the Quarter 3 of Financial year 2020, J&K had the highest unemployment rate followed by Kerala at 16.7 percent and Jharkhand at 16 percent.
The report has also revealed that the unemployment rate in J&K was highest among the women compared to the men. For women, the report noted, the rate was recorded at 13.1 per cent whereas the unemployment rate among men in the region was recorded at 9.5 per cent during October-December Financial year 20-21.
The report also revealed that last year the unemployment rate for women in J&K was recorded at 9.8 percent and 7.3 per cent for men.