India’s unemployment at record low; labour market getting transformed: SBI economists

In the new report, the economists at the country's largest lender SBI also pitched for a "reinterpretation of old fashioned rhetoric" while looking at a subject like employment.

Mumbai: India’s unemployment rate is at a record low and the country’s labour market is undergoing a structural transformation, a report said on Tuesday.

In the new report, the economists at the country’s largest lender SBI also pitched for a “reinterpretation of old fashioned rhetoric” while looking at a subject like employment.

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“India’s unemployment rate is at a record low, India’s labour market is undergoing a deep structural transformation with self-entrepreneurship across all echelons and higher educational attainment emerging as key enablers,” the report said.

It rued that the jump in self-employed populace within the employment estimates (57.3 per cent in FY23 now against 52.2 per cent in FY18) with main traction coming from rising share of household helpers evidentially has been wrongfully interpreted by labour economists and others as a signal of shrinking employment opportunities.

The government’s emphasis on entrepreneurship through the Prime Minister’s Mudra Yojana (PMMY) and post-pandemic schemes like PM-SVANidhi for those at the bottom of the pyramid is “imparting a structural transformation in labour markets in India through formalisation of credit for such family enterprises”, the report said.

Earnings have increased across all categories, the report said, adding that with primary subsistence needs like food, shelter, medical needs being taken care of by the government through free ration for 80 crore people, PMAY and Ayushman Bharat, apart from additional state schemes, such people are making a clear trade-off between earnings and working in family enterprises.