The issue of employment has been a pressing issue for the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre during the Lok Sabha elections. The NDA government had earlier said that under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, the Centre has provided 1.5 times more government jobs for the youth in last ten years (2014-2024) than during the decade-long rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
In an exclusive interview with the India Today Group, when PM Modi was asked about the ongoing employment versus beneficiaries debate going on in the country, he said the employment generation has gone up multifold in many areas and schemes floated by the central government.
"There are 10 to 12 schemes of the Centre on the basis of which they have analysed that when a house is built, how many person-hours would be employed. Now 5 crore people per year have been reported. That means this much employment has been generated… This figure is very big. If we look at it in terms of person hours, earlier if a hundred kilometres of road was built, today it has gone up to two hundred kilometres, then respective manpower would have been deployed or not... The same comparison can be made with electrification and the number of airports built. About 4 crore houses of poor people have been built. Around 11 crore toilets have been built. 5G has been rolled out at the fastest pace in the world. Infrastructure is required for this. It doesn’t happen just like that. This requires towers. People who make small things are required for that. This means that if we add all these things, then in six-seven years, you are getting six crore new jobs, this is on record. There has been an increase of hundred and sixty seven percent (167%) in the people covered by EPFO in ten years," PM Modi said. He added: "Mudra loan is about 43 crore loans separately. In that, 70% are those who are getting employment for the first time. Now a person must be giving employment to at least one person. Some people are running businesses must be giving employment to one person. All this is not just boasting. The problem in our country is that the process of recruitment is difficult. The job advertisement will come out. The department will ask the finance. That is the process. It takes one year before a person gets to know that a job is coming. I have made it short. Today, it is getting finalised in two and a half to three months to complete the entire recruitment process."
In January, payroll data released by the Ministry of Labour and Employment stated that formal job creation under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) went up by 2.69% in January to 1.62 million as compared to 1.56 million formal jobs created in December 2023. The year-on-year data showed that the net new subscribers added to EPFO went up by 7.8% when compared to 1.48 million net new subscribers added in January 2023. As per the data, of the total net subscribers added to EPFO in the month under consideration, 0.80 million are new members.
The Opposition, mainly Congress, has maintained that the NDA government has failed to create enough jobs for the youth. The Congress has said the country is sitting on a "ticking bomb" of joblessness with the youth bearing the brunt of the Modi government's "apathy" and asserted that it has a concrete and aggressive plan for providing jobs to youths and others.
Reacting to the Opposition's claims on creating more jobs and employment, PM Modi said: "If they are so honest then why do they keep mum where their governments are in states? Why don't they speak there? Secondly, if the government is responsible for employment, then why just only Government of India, the state governments, the local governments also have similar responsibility."
Earlier this week, a report released by the SKOCH Group in New Delhi said that ‘ModiNomics’ has had a significant impact on employment generation, as an average of 5.14 crore person-years of employment has been generated annually since 2014.
The report, Employment Generative Impact of ModiNomics: The Paradigm Shifts, analysed credit-led and government-led interventions between 2014 and 2024.
Sameer Kochhar, Chairman of the SKOCH Group and author of the report, said that credit-led interventions contributed an average of 3.16 crore employment per year, while government-led interventions added 1.98 crore employment annually.
The report is based on project-level findings and field research, providing valuable insights into the employment generative impact of structural credit and government schemes.