The unemployment rate for persons of 15 years and above in urban areas was 6.9 per cent in 2019-20, Union Minister of State, Ministry of Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli said on Thursday, citing the latest Periodic Labour Force (PLF) Survey report. The joblessness rates in 2017-18 and 2018-19 were 7.7 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively. 

The data on employment and unemployment is collected through the PLF Survey conducted by National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) since 2017-18. The minister said in Rajya Sabha that the government has launched All-India Quarterly Establishment Based Employment Survey (AQEES) in April 2021.

As per the result of the second round of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for the period July-September 2021, employment increased to 3.10 crore in the nine selected sectors of the economy which was 3.08 crore during April-June, 2021 against a total of 2.37 crores in these sectors taken collectively, as reported in the Sixth Economic Census 2013-14. 

Of the total employment estimated in the selected nine sectors, Manufacturing accounted for nearly 39 per cent, followed by Education with 22 per cent and Health as well as IT/BPOs sectors both around 10 per cent. Trade and Transport sectors engaged 5.3 per cent and 4.6 per cent of the total estimated workers respectively.

Meanwhile, the Parliament was told on Thursday that the Union government does not have any proposal for mandatory enrollment of graduates at employment exchanges across the country. 

Registration at employment exchanges across the country for availing employment-related services is voluntary, Minister Teli told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. 

The Ministry is implementing National Career Service Project to provide a variety of career-related services viz. job search and matching, career counselling, vocational guidance, information on skill development courses, etc. and these services are available online on the National Career Service Portal, he said.