Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress claim the employment generation in their respective regimes was better than the other, an office attached to the Planning Commission has come out with an explanation for the decline in jobs rate from 2004-05 to 2011-12.
The Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) said on Monday that for the first time in independent India, there has been an absolute fall in the numbers employed in agriculture by 36.7 million from 2004-05 to 2011-12 because the number of non-agricultural jobs grew.
Non-agricultural employment expanded by 52 million to reach 242 million in 2011-12, against 190 million in 2004-05. It expanded 7.5 million a year over 1999-2000 to 2004-5 and during 2004-5 and 2001-12. However, the number of people joining the labour force during 2000-2005 was 12 million a year, but fell to 5.5 million between 2004-05 and 2011-12. The result was that the rate of open unemployment fell, IAMR said in a paper, Why a jobs turnaround despite slowing growth.
The BJP and the Congress have been arguing over jobs creation during their respective rule. According to the National Sample Survey Office, 60 million jobs were added in the entire economy during 1999-00 to 2004-05, while around 15 million job was generated during 2004-05 and 2011-12. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was in power between 1999-2000 and 2003-04, while the Congress-led UPA has been in power since 2004-05.
