Latest RBI job data reveals India's employment growth rate accelerates to 6% in FY24

According to RBI's Measuring Productivity at Industrial Level-The India KLEMS (capital, labour, energy, material, services) data, India’s employment grew by 6 percent in FY24 from 3.2 percent in FY23, which is much higher than the estimates by private surveys that point out the country's high unemployment rate.

The central bank stated it is using a provisional estimate of productivity for the entire economy for the first time in FY24 on the basis of available data.

Mint reported, citing Citibank data, that a growth of 7 percent will create 80 lakh to 90 lakh jobs in India, which presently needs 1.1 crore to 1.2 crore jobs.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the other challenges to jobs in the country are the quality of jobs and lack of employment in the formal sector.

Around 46 percent of the workforce is still employed in agriculture, a sector that contributes less than 20 percent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), whereas the manufacturing sector accounted for 11.4 percent of total jobs last year, as per the report.

Bloomberg reported that in the post-pandemic era, few people are employed in the formal sector compared to the pre-pandemic period.

As per the report, around 25.7 percent were employed in the formal sector, the lowest in 18 years.

Mint reported, quoting the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, that the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June from 7 percent in May.

The unemployment rate in the country rose to 8 percent in FY24 from 7.5 percent and 7.7 percent in the preceding two years, while the number of people actively looking for a job was 3.7 crore in FY24, Mint reported citing data.