THE UNEMPLOYMENT MYSTERY

UNEMPLOYMENT figures in the country always make news and are a stick for the Opposition to beat the government with.

- By KRISHAN KALRA

However, no one seems to be sure of the percentage of the unemployed or more appropriately, the definition of ‘unemployed’. Let me look at the crucial issue purely as a layman.

To make any comments about the matter, I first visited the usual suspect - Google - which has almost all official data from the government and also various interpretations by economists and others. The best I could find is a wide range between four per cent to eight per cent, the ILO’s global figure being five per cent.

Not finding India in the ‘top ten countries with high unemployment figures’ - also learning that our rank is in the 80s - I wasn't overly worried. Incidentally the ‘top 10’ also include Greece at rank 9 with 11 per cent unemployment and Spain (number 10) 12 per cent.

The ‘dubious distinction list’ doesn’t have Bangladesh and Pakistan! I also found that (i) some 1.5 lakh junior doctors are unemployed and in the same paragraph about ‘our need of 21 lakh additional doctors by 2030 (ii) 83 per cent of the engineers being jobless. At this point - not wanting to get more confused - I gave up.

Definitive Figures

I think we are treating all those who are not satisfied with their jobs and feel they deserve better (which seems largely true) as unemployed; so, it is more a question of people not finding the right job and a situation where we need to do better matchmaking in the job market.