In a significant indication of how the Indian economy fared in the global meltdown, the Economic Survey today said there might have been a net addition of 151,000 jobs during the peak of the slowdown period, between October 2008 and September 2009.
It said: “A major concern in the year was the possibility of a rise in unemployment due to slowdown of the economy. While comprehensive employment data for the current financial year are not available, some sample surveys conducted by the labour bureau, the Ministry of Labour and Employment, indicated job losses which had been reversed in recent months.”
Under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, during 2009-10, as many as 43.4 million households were provided employment under various poverty alleviation and job generation schemes, for a Budgetary outlay of over Rs 70,000 crore. Of the 1,828.8 million person-days created under the scheme during this period, 29 per cent of the jobs went to scheduled castes and 22 per cent to scheduled tribes. Half the jobs favoured women.
The report of the fourth quarterly quick employment sample survey, conducted by the labour bureau in eight sectors — textiles, leather, metals, automobiles, gems and jewellery, transport, IT/BPO and handloom/powerloom — shows all, except leather, registered an increase in employment in the July to September quarter last year.
