SHIVAJI an Economics postgraduate from Ranchi University, registered his name at the local employment exchange even before he took admission in his undergraduate programme. After waiting in vain for over seven years for any response from the employment exchange, he grabbed a private job in the insurance sector. He may be lucky. There are thousands of others who are still unemployed, hoping that their registration at the exchange will convert into placement.
The growing unemployment rate in India is estimated to be 9.4 percent as per survey on employment–unemployment (2009-10) conducted by the Labour Bureau, Government of India. In other words 9.4 percent of that part of population which is interested in working is unemployed. There are 39 million job seekers registered in 969 Employment Exchanges across the country. In the coming decade, however, it is estimated that 7 million people would enter the job market every year.
One of the key organisations overseeing the unemployment scenario is the Employment Exchange. While one gets to know an overview of the employment exchanges, their empirical outcome in the context of employment and unemployment scenario in India; the column by Prof. Bibek Debroy (Page 13) critically assesses the role of Employment Exchanges as he charts out a road map for them.
The growing unemployment rate in India is estimated to be 9.4 percent as per survey on employment–unemployment (2009-10) conducted by the Labour Bureau, Government of India. In other words 9.4 percent of that part of population which is interested in working is unemployed. There are 39 million job seekers registered in 969 Employment Exchanges across the country. In the coming decade, however, it is estimated that 7 million people would enter the job market every year.
One of the key organisations overseeing the unemployment scenario is the Employment Exchange. While one gets to know an overview of the employment exchanges, their empirical outcome in the context of employment and unemployment scenario in India; the column by Prof. Bibek Debroy (Page 13) critically assesses the role of Employment Exchanges as he charts out a road map for them.
The employment setup
Employment being a concurrent subject, both the Central and State governments share the responsibility. While the Central government is responsible for laying down of policies, procedures, norms and guidelines, affiliation and certification etc under the National Employment Services; the State governments/Union Territories are accountable for administration of employment exchanges. The Directorate General of Employment & Training or the DGE&T, set up in 1945, is the apex organisation for coordinating employment services. DGE&T has three principal divisions: Directorate of Training; Directorate of Employment and the Secretarial Division. DGE&T carries out continuous programme of
evaluation of policies, procedures and working practices of the Employment Exchanges in different States and Union Territories.
DGE&T also collects and disseminates Employment Market information and prescribes standard reporting formats for the organized sector and Employment Exchanges. Historically speaking, in pursuance of the recommendations of the Training and Employment Service Committee (Shiva Rao Committee, 1952); the day-to-day administrative control of the Employment Exchanges (as also the Industrial Training Institutes), was transferred to the State Governments/Union Territory administration with effect from 01.11.1956 on cost sharing basis between the Centre and the States. This arrangement, however, continued only up to 31st March 1969 as per the decision of National Development Council.
The total number of Employment Exchanges functioning as on 31 October 2010 is 969 which include 83 University Employment Information & Guidance Bureaux and 50 special ones for the handicapped, up from only 18 Employment Exchanges in 1951. There is a Central Employment Exchange under the Directorate of Employment based in New Delhi.
evaluation of policies, procedures and working practices of the Employment Exchanges in different States and Union Territories.
DGE&T also collects and disseminates Employment Market information and prescribes standard reporting formats for the organized sector and Employment Exchanges. Historically speaking, in pursuance of the recommendations of the Training and Employment Service Committee (Shiva Rao Committee, 1952); the day-to-day administrative control of the Employment Exchanges (as also the Industrial Training Institutes), was transferred to the State Governments/Union Territory administration with effect from 01.11.1956 on cost sharing basis between the Centre and the States. This arrangement, however, continued only up to 31st March 1969 as per the decision of National Development Council.
The total number of Employment Exchanges functioning as on 31 October 2010 is 969 which include 83 University Employment Information & Guidance Bureaux and 50 special ones for the handicapped, up from only 18 Employment Exchanges in 1951. There is a Central Employment Exchange under the Directorate of Employment based in New Delhi.
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Role of the Exchanges
The primary activities of Employment Exchanges are registration of job seekers, and providing placements to them. Career counselling, vocational guidance and garnering information on employment market are the other set of responsibilities. Another key activity of the Employment Exchange is to motivate and guide the unemployed youth for taking up self-employment ventures. In 22 select Exchanges, there are special cells for fostering self-employment. According to the DGE&T Annual Report 2010-11, till the end of March 2010, 1.14 lakh persons were placed in self-employment out of which nearly 21 percent were women. Further there were close to 2.15 lakh persons, who were on the Live Register seeking self-employment assistance.
Employment Exchanges Mission Mode Project
This is an initiative by the Ministry of Labour & Employment to upgrade and modernise the employment services rendered through the network of Employment Exchanges across the country. The project aims to develop an integrated National web portal for providing effective, speedy and transparent employment related services. This project would also have a relevant counselling division where assessment of capabilities and vocational guidance services to job seekers would be given to enhance their employability. The project would ensure that all the Exchanges provide accurate and quality labour market information that would also aid in planning and decision making at a faster pace.
What do Statistics on Employment Exchanges Say?
The latest data as compiled from the Annual Report of the Ministry of Labour & Employment (2010-11) and the Annual Survey on Employment and Unemployment (2009-10) by the Labour Bureau state that there are in all 969 Employment Exchanges in the country with 3.86 crore people on the live register.
In other words there were a little over 38.6 million people waiting for jobs as on 31st of July 2010. If one observes the trend, the numbers of notified vacancies have come down (from 5.26 and 5.7 lakh in 2007 and 2008 respectively to 4.2 lakh in 2009), as also the submissions. Interestingly the placement to submission ratio witnessed an increase unperturbed by the global recession during the 2007-09 period.
Though the statistics on State-wise employment exchanges (2010-11) is yet to be seen, there are some data highlights on the status of Employment Exchanges from different States (one can see the State-wise details for the year 2007 in the table on Page 12).
The maximum number of job-seekers awaiting employment as on 31st July 2010, were in West Bengal (64.5 lakh) while the minimum was 4000 in Dadra & Nagar Haveli. The placement figures were the highest for Gujarat at 94,900 and maximum number of registrations took place in Tamil Nadu where 70,100 people got registered. In all there were 31.5 percent women job-seekers.
If we look at the 2007 figures, the maximum numbers of employment exchanges were in two states, Uttar Pradesh (90) and Kerala (89) with maximum job seekers in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. If efficiency of an employment exchange is assessed by looking at the placement to submission ratio, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh are the best, possibly due to the less number of persons on live register. But the states of Haryana, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu at 20.8, 19.7 and 16.2 percentage also excel. Tamil Nadu (12.1), Kerala (10.1), Maharashtra (8.4) and Uttar Pradesh (8.4) have the largest share as assessed by percentage of live register to total live register.
State/UTs | At The End of The Year | In Thousands | % of Placement To Submission | ||||
Employment Exchanges* | Live Register In Thousands | Registration | Vacancies Notified | Submissions | Placements | ||
ANDHRA PRADESH | 31 | 2349.9 | 265.7 | 20.9 | 527.1 | 1.3 | 0.2 |
ARUNACHAL | 11 | 32.2 | 3.3 | <50 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 33.3 |
ASSAM | 52 | 1938.3 | 174.4 | 2.8 | 27.7 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
BIHAR | 37 | 1309.6 | 112.5 | 0.6 | 9.6 | 0.1 | 1 |
CHHATTISGARH | 17 | 1097.7 | 173.7 | 3.7 | 16 | 1.4 | 8.8 |
DELHI | 14 | 451.5 | 73.3 | 2.1 | 24.7 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
GOA | 1 | 101.3 | 7.6 | 3.1 | 26.1 | 1.2 | 4.6 |
GUJARAT | 44 | 808.8 | 350.4 | 245 | 904.1 | 178.3 | 19.7 |
HARYANA | 61 | 1004.2 | 182.6 | 19 | 17.8 | 3.7 | 20.8 |
HIMACHAL | 15 | 775.4 | 129.1 | 7.7 | 92 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
JAMMU & KASHMIR | 14 | 106.9 | 28.8 | <50 | 0.3 | - | 0 |
JHARKHAND | 39 | 1112.2 | 75.3 | 1.8 | 39.5 | 1.8 | 4.6 |
KARNATAKA | 37 | 959.6 | 81.5 | 13.9 | 116.4 | 1.6 | 1.4 |
KERALA | 89 | 4049.2 | 426.8 | 21.8 | 263.6 | 11 | 4.2 |
MADHYA PRADESH | 58 | 1840.6 | 433.8 | 7.2 | 56.2 | 3.9 | 6.9 |
MAHARASHTRA | 47 | 3366.4 | 581.2 | 81.5 | 609.9 | 8.2 | 1.3 |
MANIPUR | 11 | 597 | 17.8 | 1.8 | 43.3 | <50 | 0 |
MEGHALAYA | 12 | 31.3 | 8.3 | 0.5 | 1.5 | <50 | 0 |
MIZORAM | 3 | 49.3 | 12.5 | 0.7 | 7.8 | 0.3 | 3.8 |
NAGALAND | 8 | 46 | 9 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 7.7 |
ORISSA | 40 | 819.1 | 120 | 3.2 | 50.2 | 3.8 | 7.6 |
PUNJAB | 46 | 435.3 | 77.6 | 18.3 | 91.9 | 3 | 3.3 |
RAJASTHAN | 42 | 873.5 | 270 | 9.7 | 66.6 | 4.5 | 6.8 |
SIKKIM | 0 | ||||||
TAMIL NADU | 34 | 4841.1 | 945.7 | 31.5 | 146.5 | 23.8 | 16.2 |
TRIPURA | 5 | 442.6 | 20.6 | 0.3 | 4.1 | 0.4 | 9.8 |
UTTARANCHAL | 24 | 480.4 | 83.2 | 5 | 47.1 | 3.8 | 8.1 |
UTTAR PRADESH | 90 | 3343.5 | 486.8 | 5.8 | 130.7 | 3.3 | 2.5 |
WEST BENGAL | 75 | 6399.8 | 249.2 | 11.9 | 300.6 | 5.3 | 1.8 |
A & N ISLANDS | 1 | 40.2 | 7.2 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 83.3 |
CHANDIGARH | 2 | 48.8 | 4.8 | 3.8 | 16.6 | 0.1 | 0.6 |
D & N HAVELI | 1 | 6.5 | - | - | - | - | |
DAMAN AND DIU | 2 | 10.9 | - | - | - | - | |
LAKSHADWEEP | 1 | 11.2 | - | - | - | - | |
PUDUCHERRY | 1 | 193.7 | 21.5 | 2 | 26 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
CEE, NEW DELHI | - | - | - | <50 | - | - | |
Total (2007) | 965 | 39974 | 5434.2 | 525.8 | 3666.1 | 263.5 | 7.2 |
* Includes University Employment Information & Guidance Bureaux
Source: Annual Report, Ministry of Labour & Employment (2010-11) and http://dget.nic.in
India’s Employment and Unemployment Scenario
While the provisional data from Census 2011 has shown the Indian population figure to be 1210 million, the Labour Bureau annual survey report (Report on Employment & Unemployment 2009-10, Chandigarh, October 2010) put forth the country’s population to be 1182 million.
The survey conducted in 28 States/UTs covering 300 districts, for the first time brought out a report to generate a national debate on the topic. One may be aware that over the years, it is the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) that apprise the country on its employment and unemployment situation through the quinquennial surveys.
Though, the results of the 2009-10 comprehensive labour market survey conducted and completed by NSSO June would be available soon, the important findings of the Labour Bureau report for the reference period from 1.4.2009 to 31.3.2010 are as follows:
The survey conducted in 28 States/UTs covering 300 districts, for the first time brought out a report to generate a national debate on the topic. One may be aware that over the years, it is the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) that apprise the country on its employment and unemployment situation through the quinquennial surveys.
Though, the results of the 2009-10 comprehensive labour market survey conducted and completed by NSSO June would be available soon, the important findings of the Labour Bureau report for the reference period from 1.4.2009 to 31.3.2010 are as follows:
The population of the country is 1182 million with 63.5 percent in the working age bracket of 15 and 59 years. However, not everyone who is in the working age is interested in joining the labour force, so the worker population ratio is much lower. The total numbers of employed people in the country are 384 million while 40 million are unemployed. The Labour force participation rate or LFPR, defined as the number of persons in the labour force per 1000 persons as per the survey results was 359.
This implies that 359 persons are either employed or available for work per 1000 population. At overall level, the LFPR of males and females is estimated to be at 538 and 163 persons respectively. The sex ratio of the labour force, at overall level is estimated to be 279. In the rural and urban sectors, the LFPR is estimated at 365 and 340 respectively. The sex ratio of the labour force in rural sector is 299 at overall level whereas for the urban sector the same is 222. Worker-population ratio (WPR) defined as the number of persons employed per 1000 persons is 325.
In the rural and urban sector, the WPR is estimated to be 329 and 314 respectively. The sex ratio of the employed persons is 278 and 204 respectively in rural and urban sector. Proportion Unemployed (PU), defined as number of persons unemployed per 1000 persons, were 94. This implies that 9.4 per cent of the labour force is unemployed and looking for jobs. In absolute terms about 40 million persons are found unemployed. For male and female persons the unemployment rate at overall level is 80 and 146 respectively. A majority of the estimated unemployed persons (80 per cent) is in the rural sector at overall level. The PU is 10.1 percent in rural areas, while it is 7.3 percent in urban areas. One should note that the unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of the total labour force, and not the total population.
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The way forward
The given statistics and the viewpoints of critics are indicative of a situation where not everything is all right with the way the employment exchanges function. If the government is to be believed, one can think of making the situation better. An insight into the establishment and system of employment exchanges does suggest that there is foreseeable potential in improving the present functioning and utilising the resources for future activities. The present state of affairs can be made better through key initiatives, for instance by modernising the employment exchanges through information and communication technology, creating and maintaining information for providing employment services for semi-urban and rural areas, being a prime source for job news in employment schemes and programmes.
However, according to experts such as Prof. Debroy (see column), there are far bigger issues which have not been addressed at all. The need to have meaningful data to capture changes in employment; need for an amendment in the Employment Exchanges Act to allow private employment exchanges, such that there is a wider reach, collecting data on the creation of employment opportunities even at the rural level and usage of information technology in all employment initiatives, are some of the key areas of priority.
However, according to experts such as Prof. Debroy (see column), there are far bigger issues which have not been addressed at all. The need to have meaningful data to capture changes in employment; need for an amendment in the Employment Exchanges Act to allow private employment exchanges, such that there is a wider reach, collecting data on the creation of employment opportunities even at the rural level and usage of information technology in all employment initiatives, are some of the key areas of priority.
Employment Exchange Statistics (in million)
Categorised into six segments, beginning with number of employment exchanges, one gets to know the status of these Exchanges over the last five years At the insistence of the President, MoL&E brought out the report on ‘employment’, one among the five ‘reports to people’. Among India’s 969 Employment Exchanges there are 83 University Employment Information & Guidance Bureaux that assist the unemployed in counselling and vocational guidance. Employment Exchange Statistics - All Categories - State-Wise 2007
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