New Delhi: In a major headache for the Modi government, India’s unemployment rate jumped to highest rate in last 15 months in February as there are still not enough jobs after 15 months of demonetisation, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
CMIE tracks business and economic data of the country. It said that February also saw a mild increase in the labour participation rate. This increased from 43.2 per cent in January to 43.8 per cent in February.
CMIE said that though labour participation rate has improved a tad in February, it has not bounced back to pre-demonetisation levels. It has merely stopped falling. It is now more than 15 months since demonetisation and the RBI has almost completed all the remonetisation.
"Yet, the LPR has not returned to its earlier levels," it said. The CMIE said it is possibly the same story of lack of jobs that is holding back the LPR at its low level. "Lack of new jobs had triggered a fall in the LPR. Now, lack of sufficient new jobs is keeping the LPR low," it said.
The CMIE said that people don’t find it worth the effort to look for jobs if it is generally perceived that there ain’t many going around anyway.
As a result, not many feel enthused to come into the labour markets, it said.
"As a result, the labour market has not expanded enough as yet to regain its lost ground. In February 2018, the labour force was 434 million. This is ten million lower than the size of the labour force before demonetisation," it said.
In October 2016, the size was 444 million.
