Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
The findings of the latest employment survey called the Periodic Labor Force Survey (2017-18), are a cause for concern as the scenario is still far from anything that would denote decent employment. The two biggest issues here are the shrinking share of the labour force and the rising unemployment.
Recent attempts by some to create an impression that self-employment has not been captured by the National Sample Survey is false since the definition of ‘employment’ includes in itself ‘self-’ as well as ‘wage employment’. Within the category of ‘self-employed’, the survey also counts those engaged in ‘unpaid family labour’. The highest unemployment rate of a severe nature was among the urban women at 10.8%; followed by urban men at 7.1%; rural men at 5.8%; and rural women at 3.8%.
When we ignore the location of residence, we find that severe unemployment among men at 6.2% was higher than among women at 5.7%. However, given the sharp decline in women’s labour force participation rate, they have been losing out heavily due to the double whammy of exclusion from the labour force and an inability to access employment when included in the labour force.
Among those with secondary school education, it is 5.7% but jumps to 10.3% when those with higher secondary-level education are considered.
The highest rate is among the diploma and certificate holders (19.8%); followed by graduates (17.2); and postgraduates (14.6%).
Of course, educated persons are likely to have aspirations for specific jobs and hence likely to go through a long waiting period than their less-educated counterparts. They are also likely to be less economically deprived. But the country’s inability to absorb the educated into gainful employment is indeed an economic loss and a demoralizing experience both for the unemployed and those enthusiastically enrolling themselves for higher education.
The overall conclusion here is that the trend of ‘jobless growth’ that was till recently confined largely, if not only, to the organized sector has now spread to other sectors of the economy, making it more generalized. This calls for a thorough re-examination of the missing linkages between growth and employment.