PM package will make youth more employable: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that the Indian youth were more employable than they were a decade ago. The Prime Minister’s package announced in the Union budget for 2024-25 will further improve employment prospects, she said, countering opposition criticism on unemployment.

Sitharaman also defended the government on inflation, asserting that India’s inflation rate has been lower than other emerging markets over the past 10 years.  

Unemployment and inflation were key issues for the Opposition in the recent national elections, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government retained power, but lost its absolute majority, relying on coalition partners for its third term.

Defending the government’s economic performance, Sitharaman compared the NDA’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic to the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s poor response to the 2007-08 global financial crisis, which resulted in high inflation and fiscal deficit between 2009 and 2013.

Citing the Periodic Labour Force Survey, Sitharaman said the labour market indicators for those aged 15 and above have steadily improved from 2017-18 to 2022-23.

“Labour force participation has also increased from 49.8% in 2017-18 to 57.9% in 2022-23. Women’s labour force participation has risen to 37% in 2022-23 from 23.3% in 2017-18. The unemployment rate has declined from 6% in 2017-18 to a low of 3.2% in 2022-23.”

Youth unemployment for ages 15 to 29 declined sharply from 17.8% in 2017-18 to 10% in 2022-23, she added. Quoting an SBI research report from July 2024, Sitharaman said India created 125 million jobs between 2014 and 2023, compared to 29 million jobs from 2004 to 2014.

“In the last decade, employability of Indian youth has increased sharply, rising from less than 34% in 2014 to over 51% in 2024. We will further improve it through the PM’s package on employment and skilling.”  

In recent years, the jobs situation has sparked intense debate, with agencies noting both improvements and challenges. For instance, a Citi Research report of 4 July highlighted that while India has created 7.4 million jobs annually in this century, it needs to better, creating 11-12 million jobs per year over the next decade. 

The report also suggested that at 7% real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, India can generate 8-9 million jobs annually.

The government, however, countered the Citi report, claiming it failed to consider comprehensive positive employment data from sources such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Reserve Bank of India’s KLEMS data. 

On 8 July, the labour ministry said, citing RBI data, that over 80 million employment opportunities were created from 2017-18 to 2021-22, averaging over 20 million per year.

The minister also emphasized that fiscal prudence has been a key governance principle under Prime Minister Modi.