Study: 10% of Indians jobless

A new study conducted in 46,000 households in 28 states in India has found that about 10 percent of the Indians are without jobs.

The study by India’s Federal Labor Ministry also found that 85 percent of Indians had no access to social security services.

Various surveys have pegged India’s unemployment rate from 2.8 to over 10 percent, but analysts say the actual figure is much higher than the figures announced.

The latest study for 2009-2010 by the Labor Bureau was conducted in 300 districts of the country among people between 15 and 59 years of age. It also found that 9.4 percent of those surveyed had been unemployed or jobless for over six months.

While more than 70 percent of the working people were self-employed as casual workers, only 17 percent were earning regular wages and salaries.

According to economic analysts, unemployment figures in India do not reveal the true extent of joblessness in the country.

The study also found that more than 11 percent of the people in rural areas were jobless compared to 7.3 percent in urban areas.

The rate of joblessness among women was higher than among men, the survey said.

The labor survey found that every year the number of people working in rural areas is diminishing.

They say most of the surveys do not reveal the rising “underemployment” – those who have given up looking for work or are part-timers seeking full-time posts.

They say that the joblessness rates often show a decline because the surveys are conducted when the respondents are employed for short periods by national work programs.

According to experts, many of those who have found employment are in the unorganized casual sector, which means they have no recourse to any kind of social security.