9.4% unemployed, agriculture accounts for less than half of all jobs

A first-ever survey by the Labour Bureau under the Union Ministry of Labour has shown that chronic unemployment — being jobless for more than six months — in India for 2009-10 stands at 9.4 per cent of the population, more than thrice the 2.8 per cent estimated by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). The survey was conducted in 300 districts among the 28 states and union territories with working class age of 15 to 59 years. The unemployment rate was higher at 11.1 percent in rural areas as compared to 7.3 per cent in urban areas with women worse off at 14.6 per cent compared to just 8 per cent among men, said the ‘Report on Employment & Unemployment Survey 2009-10’. The NSSO’s findings based on Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2007-08 had placed the unemployment figure at 2.8 per cent counting 11 million as unemployed. In contrast, the Labour Bureau has estimated 40 million to be unemployed.