Unemployment in India is at its highest in 45 years – says an Indian daily citing an undisclosed jobs survey

• Unemployment rate stands at 6.1% in India, according to an official survey done by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
  
• Two top officials of the National Statistical Commission had resigned on Monday stating that the government withheld the report.
  
• This is the first official report on jobs to be released after demonetisation.

Unemployment rate in India hit 6.1% in 2017-18, highest the country has seen in 45 years, according to an undisclosed jobs survey accessed by Indian daily Business Standard.

This is a big blow for Narendra Modi government as the budget session of Parliament – the last one before the next general election – kicks off.

This is allegedly the same report that was reportedly vetted by the two independent members of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), including the acting chairman, who resigned on Monday because the government decided not to make the data public.

The government dismissed the allegation on Tuesday saying, “NSSO is processing the quarterly data for the period July 2017 to December 2018 and the report will be released thereafter.”

Congress President Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to comment on the high unemployment rate.


The survey by NSSO was the first one since the infamous demonetisation in November 2016, which brought the Indian economy to a grinding halt. If the report is made public, and if it does show that unemployment peaked in the aftermath of the note ban, it will deflate the government’s relentless attempt to give the drastic measure a positive spin.

The results of the job survey, as reported by the Business Standard, is in sync with another survey done by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, which stated that 11 million Indians lost their jobs in 2018, with rural India taking the worst hit reporting 84% of the job losses.

With less than 100 days to the next election, the Narendra Modi government has a handful of controversies to defend against.

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