Stagnant job market undermines govt’s economic claims, says Shiv Sena (UBT)

Shiv Sena (UBT) on Thursday accused the central government of failing to translate economic and industrial growth into employment, claiming that official data presented a stark contrast to its ambitions for a $5 trillion economy.

In an editorial published in party mouthpiece Saamana, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party cited figures from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to argue that India’s job market had remained broadly stagnant over the past year.

According to the editorial, the unemployment rate stood at 5.5 per cent in the latest quarter, marginally lower than the 5.6 per cent recorded a year earlier. The share of salaried workers edged up from 51.2 per cent to 51.4 per cent, while female workforce participation increased from 32 per cent to 32.7 per cent.

The party also claimed that employment opportunities in rural areas had continued to decline. While supporters of the government may view largely unchanged unemployment figures as evidence of economic resilience, the editorial said the data concealed a more serious shortage of opportunities for educated young people.

Citing employment studies, Saamana claimed that India’s population of young graduates had grown sharply over the past four decades but that unemployment among them had risen at an even faster rate.

The editorial also referred to an Azim Premji University report to argue that degree holders account for a significant proportion of unemployed young people. It claimed that only 12 out of every 1,000 young jobseekers secured permanent employment.

Shiv Sena (UBT) said the official statistics contradicted Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s assertion that the government had generated an average of 1.7 crore jobs annually during its tenure. It also said the figures supported concerns raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over youth unemployment at a recent event in Prayagraj.

The party alleged that the Centre had failed to fulfil its earlier promise of creating two crore jobs annually, leaving millions of qualified young people facing an uncertain future.

Describing the government data as a reflection of the Centre’s economic policies, the editorial called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to acknowledge the scale of the employment challenge.

With IANS inputs