In the fiscal year 2024, India’s employment sector shows an unexpected trajectory

The data was released in response to a Citibank analysis published last week, which stated that growth of nearly 7% would only generate 8–9 million jobs in India—not the 11–12 million that are required.

The Reserve Bank of India said on Monday that the country generated 46. 7 million fresh termed employment in the fiscal year that ended in march although figures from other political opponents and polling steroids point to high unemployment in the South Asian country. As per the RBI employment and productivity statistics on industrial levels, the employment growth raised to 6 % of the total employment for 2023-2024 from 3 % only 2% in 2022–2023.

For the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, jobs have been a touchy subject. Analysts connected Modi’s inability to secure a majority in the parliament’s directly elected chamber last month through polling, which forced him to rely on allies in order to win a third term in office, to the dearth of employment and rising inflation.

Data from RBI shows that total employment in India was 643. 3 million in 2023/ 2024 as compared to 596. Information sourced from the Ministry of Labour and the government National Accounts is utilized by the central bank in calculating the productivity as well as the employment level of the nation.

Previously, the report—this is a periodic release from the central bank—has only provided archival information. But on Monday the central bank said that using whatever data it has it is trying to come up with a provisional estimate of the productivity of the entire economy for the first time ever for the fiscal year 2023-2024.

The data was made public in response to a Citibank analysis published last week, which claimed that growth of over 7% would only generate 8–9 million jobs in India—not the 11–12 million that are required. “Over the next ten years, even 7% GDP growth might not be able to meet the demand for jobs,” noted Samiran Chakraborty, chief economist at Citi for India. The federal labour agency refuted Citi’s projection in a separate statement, stating that its calculations indicate that between 2017–18 and 2021–22, an average of nearly 20 million employment possibilities were produced annually.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private think tank that also monitors unemployment in the nation, predicted that India’s unemployment rate increased to 8% in the fiscal year 2023–24 from 7.5% and 7.7% in the two years prior.