City’s young & jobless: A grim picture

Vaishnavi C Sekhar / TNN / Jun 12, 2005, 23:57 IST

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MUMBAI: Maharashtra may have cornered the bulk of foreign investment in the post-reform years, but that hasn’t translated into more jobs.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra may have cornered the bulk of foreign investment in the post-reform years, but that hasn’t translated into more jobs. Recently released census figures show that unemployment in the state rose sharply in the 1990s. The jump was equally startling in the commercial capital of Mumbai.
Between 1991 and 2001, the number of unemployed people in the state and its capital jumped six-fold. The number of unemployed in the state touched 45 lakh and 6 lakh in Mumbai in 2001.
As a percentage of total labour force in the state, this rose from 1.1% to 6.4% over the decade. In Mumbai, where increased job opportunities attract migrant labour, the proportion of unemployed rose from 2.7% in 1991 to 11.7% in 2001.
The national average for the same period was 7.2%. Most worryingly, there has been a sharp rise in unemployment among young people, especially in Mumbai where 23% of the workforce aged between 20 and 24 were recorded as unemployed in 2001 as against 6% in 1991. "An economy which is not able to provide jobs for the most flexible part of our workforce has worrying implications for the future, especially since our population is a young one,"says economist Ramesh Dutta of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, adding that it will also have a negative impact on society.

Since the census is considered only a broadbrush indicator of employment, the real picture could be even worse, suggest some experts. Indeed, the trend is further corroborated by figures from the state employment exchange. The number of job seekers on the live register rose by almost 13 lakh in the same period. The latest economic survey also shows that employment in the public and private sector continued to decline after 2001.
Experts attribute this jump in unemployment to an expanding labour force, agricultural stagnation and the decline in manufacturing activity.

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