Unemployment: Number of jobless in UP rises by 58% to 34 lakh in two years

The number of unemployed educated youth in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has grown by over 12.5 lakh in last two years to 34 lakh, Yogi Adityanath government said at the state assembly on February 14.

In a written answer at the state assembly, UP's labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya said 33.93 lakh unemployed persons were registered as on February 7, 2020 with an online portal run by the labour department. The number of registered educated unemployed in UP stood at 21.39 lakh as on June 30, 2018. This amounts to a 58.43 per cent growth in the number of unemployed people in the state in the last two years.

The labour minister, however, did not disclose reason behind rise in the number of unemployment in the state.

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As per 2011 census, UP is the most populous state in India with nearly 20 crore inhabitants, which is over 16 per cent of the country's population.

According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, unemployment almost doubled in UP during 2019 compared to 2018. The average unemployment in UP jumped to 9.95 per cent during the last year as against 5.91 per cent in 2018. Unemployment rate of 10 per cent means that nearly 10 in every 100 persons are unemployed.

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It is also notable that the unemployment rate in Uttar Pradesh was higher than the national average of 7.7 owing to a marked decline in economic activity in the country, which slipped to hit an over six-year low of 4.5 per cent in July-September quarter. India's GDP growth rate has tumbled over than 2 per cent in just one year.

By Chitranjan Kumar