Question : EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES .

(a) whether the Government has taken note of recent report released by International Labour Organisation (ILO) which said that the unemployment scenario in India over the last two years has been showing a rising trend;

(b) if so, whether this report is in accordance with the unemployment statistics available with the Ministry and if so, the details thereof;

(c) if not, the reasons for the inconsistency between the ILO report and the Government data;

(d) the details of the employment-intensive sectors; and

(e) the measures taken by the Government to generate employment in intensive sectors?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR STEEL, MINES AND LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT (SHRI VISHNU DEO SAI)

(a) to (c): Reliable estimates of employment and unemployment are obtained through labour force survey conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. Last such survey was conducted during 2011-12. As per results of two most recent surveys, during 2009-10 and 2011-12, unemployment rate on usual status among persons of all ages has increased from 2.0 per cent to 2.2 per cent.

According to information received from International Labour Organisation (ILO) unemployment rates may differ from data published by national sources due to difference in coverage and/ or definitions. ILO has used an empirical model for estimation, according to which the estimated increase from 3.5 per cent to 3.7 per cent is not statistically significant. Government relies on estimates released by NSSO.

(d): As per National Sample Survey Office, Agriculture & Allied (primary), industry

(secondary) and services (tertiary) are the employment intensive sectors.

(e): Government has decided to strategically promote labour-intensive manufacturing and expand employment opportunities by promoting tourism and agro-based industries.

The National Manufacturing Policy of the Government targets to create 10 crore jobs by the year 2022. The 12th Five Year Plan projects 5 crore new work opportunities to be generated in the non-farm sector and provide skill certification to equivalent numbers. In order to improve the employability of youth, various Central Government Ministries run skill development schemes across different sectors. According to the data compiled by National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), about 75.84 Lakh persons were given skill development training in the year 2013-14 under these schemes.