Worker Population Ratio grew to 52.6% in 2020-21 from 46.8% in 2017-18: Centre

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, the minister said that WPR has shown a continuous upward trend in the last four years while unemployment rate has witnessed a declining trend 2017-18 onwards.

Singh added that employment generation coupled with improving employability is the priority. “Accordingly, the government has taken various steps to deal with the problem of unemployment in recent times.”

He said that the Centre has announced ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ package to provide stimulus to business and to mitigate the adverse impact of covid-19. “Under this package, the Government is providing fiscal stimulus of more than Rupees Twenty-Seven lakh crore. This package comprises of various long-term schemes/ programmes/ policies for making the country self-reliant and to create employment opportunities.”

The ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana’ (ABRY) was launched with effect from 1 October, 2020 to incentivize employers for creation of new employment and restoration of loss of employment during Covid-19 pandemic. As on 28 November 2022, benefits are provided to 60.13 lakh beneficiaries.

Budget 2021-22 launched Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, with an outlay of Rs. 1.97 lakh crore, for a period of 5 years starting from 2021-22. The PLI schemes being implemented by the government have the potential for creating 60 lakh new jobs.

Besides these initiatives, multiple flagship programmes of the government such as Make in India, Start-up India, Stand-up India, Digital India, Smart City Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, Housing for All etc. are also oriented towards generating employment opportunities.

The official data source on Employment and Unemployment is Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) which is conducted by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) since 2017-18.