Improving Employability has been the priority concern of the Government

As per the results of available labour force surveys on Employment-Unemployment conducted by Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment, the estimated unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above on usual status basis in the country in 2011-12,  2012-13, 2013-14 and 2015-16 was 3.3%, 4.0%, 3.4% and 3.7% respectively.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt Ltd. (CMIE), unemployment rate is in the range of 3.39% to 5.67% during July, 2017 to June, 2018.

Employment generation and improving employability has been the priority concern of the Government. The Government is implementing various programmes in this direction like encouraging private sector of economy, fast tracking various projects involving substantial investment and increasing public expenditure on schemes like Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) and Deendyal Antodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM).

In order to improve the employability of youth, around 22 Ministries/Departments run skill development schemes across various sectors. MUDRA and START UPS schemes are initiated by the Government for facilitating self-employment.  

Government has implemented the National Career Service (NCS) Project which comprises a digital portal that provides a nation-wide online platform for the job seekers and employers for job-matching in a dynamic, efficient and responsive manner and has a repository of career content.

Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana has been launched by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the year 2016-17 for incentivising industry for promoting employment generation. Under this scheme, Government is paying entire employer’s contribution (12% or as admissible) towards EPF and EPS for all eligible new employees for all sectors for 3 years.

This information was given by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar Union Minister of State (I/C) for Labour and Employment in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.