Narendra Modi's Gujarat better than

Siddaramaiah's Karnataka. 

Tuesday, Oct 8, 2013, 13:42 IST | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA DNA Correspondent 

STATE OF JOBS: 3.6% men in Karnataka are unemployed; the percentage of women without a job in state is 4.4

The state of joblessness in Karnataka, among both men and women, is more than that in Gujarat and Delhi. While 3.6% of men in the state are jobless, the percentage is 4.4 for women. This 4.4% is greater than the rate of unemployment of women in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, where the percentage is 2.2 and 0.9 respectively.

In contrast, the rate of unemployment among men in Gujarat is 2.4%, and 3.6% among women.

For Delhi, the numbers are 3.6% for men, and 0.9% for women. These findings are part of a report ‘State of the Urban Youth-India 2013’ released by UN-Habitat on Sunday.

The study is based on NSS 66 round of data (2009-10) of urban youth between the ages of 15 and 32.

The report also reveals that Lakshadweep has the highest unemployment among men — 16.3% and Meghalaya has the highest among women — 35.9% — in the country. In Lakshadweep, 18.2% women are unemployed and in Meghalaya, 15.7% men are jobless. Nagaland is next with 11.2% men, and 13.9% women unemployed.

The report reads, “Three-fourth of rural women and 5/6 of urban women are not in the labour force. Between 2004-05 and 2009-10, the proportion of young women in the labour force has slipped from 33% to 25% in rural India, and from 19% to 16% in urban India.”

According to economist Ajit Ranade, unemployment figures are drawn from registration in the employment exchange, which does not give a correct picture. “Besides, a large proportion of youth today are under-employed, this means they are in jobs which pay less than they deserve as per their skills and qualifications.”

Sunil Goel, director of search firm GlobalHunt, says joblessness will continue to exist for while, “since companies are going slow with their hiring plans. This has been the scene for quite a few years now, unlike the 2006-07 period when all and sundry would hire in large numbers.”

Self-employment takes a dipThe report further states that only 19.5% of youth in India were self-employed in the 2009-10 period.

This denotes a drastic dip from 2004-05, when the self-employment rate was 25%. This despite the fact that of late entrepreneurship is being encouraged by various stakeholders including IT industry body Nasscom, which has started incubation and mentoring for entrepreneurs.

“We need to create an ecosystem where entrepreneurship thrives. Such an ecosystem requires active participation from venture capitalists who are ready to provide funding, incubators and mentors to guide and take ahead emerging ventures,” says Naganand Doraswamy, president, The Indus Entrepreneurs that promotes entrepreneurship.