“India has successfully, swiftly generated new jobs” says Union Minister Piyush Goyal

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday highlighted the success the government has had in job creation in its tenure. The Minister was speaking in the context of the RBI KLEMS Data that showed that nearly 4.6 crore new jobs were created in the financial year 2023-2024.

“Yesterday, the report released by the Reserve Bank of India on the generation of employment in India reflects how, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India has successfully swiftly generated new jobs and new employment opportunities. For the first time after 1981-82, around 2.5 times higher number of employment opportunities became available last year. More than 4.60 crore people received new employment last year – this is an increase of around 6%. Before this, in 2022-23, the unemployment was at 3.2% – which was very low…I believe that PM Modi’s term has been the most successful one, about new jobs. SBI too has released a report that states that 12.5 Crore jobs have been generated between 2014-2023. From 2004-2014, the number was just 2.90 crore, this was in the UPA regime’s 10 years,” Piyush Goyal said.

The BJP also used the RBI data to say that the Narendra Modi government had turned India into one of the world’s best job-creating nations after the sluggish years under the UPA government

“Under the BJP, a staggering 12.5 crore jobs were created in just 10 years (FY14-23), cementing India’s position as one of the world’s best job-creating nations. In stark contrast, Manmohan Singh’s rule had seen a meagre 2.9 crore job creation between 2004-14,” said BJP Spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam.

According to PLFS and RBI’s KLEMS data, India has generated more than 8 crore (80 million) employment opportunities from 2017-18 to 2021-22. This translates to an average of over 2 crore (20 million) employment per year, even though the world economy was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-21 which contradicts Citigroup’s assertion of India’s inability to generate sufficient employment. This significant employment creation demonstrates the effectiveness of various government initiatives aimed at boosting employment across sectors.

A statement issued in a rejoinder to a Citigroup report, that had claimed that India would struggle to provide employment opportunities even with 7 per cent growth, said that PLFS data shows that during the last 5 years, more employment opportunities have been generated compared to the number of people joining the labour force, resulting in a consistent reduction in the unemployment rate. This is a clear indicator of the positive impact of government policies on employment. Contrary to the report, which suggests a dire employment scenario, the official data reveals a more optimistic picture of the Indian job market.

The statement further said that EPFO data suggests that more and more workers are joining formal jobs. During 2023-24, more than 1.3 crore subscribers joined EPFO which is more than double compared to 61.12 lakh who joined EPFO during 2018-19. Moreover, during the last six and half years (from September 2017 to March 2024) more than 6.2 crore net subscribers have joined EPFO.

The statement also said that official data sources like PLFS, RBI, EPFO, etc. show consistent improvements in the key labour market indicators, including increased Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) and Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and a declining Unemployment Rate during the last five years. EPFO and NPS data further support the positive employment trends. The trends in manufacturing, expanding service sector, and infrastructure growth, apart from others, including emerging opportunities in multiple sectors such as gig and platform economy and GCCs indicate robust prospects.