Labour and Employment Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya today said that there is no dearth of jobs in the country and due to policy interventions of the present government, the unemployment rate has been reduced to 3.2 percent in the country. Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour, the Minister expressed hope that the unemployment rate will come down below 3 percent in the coming years. 

Lauding this year’s Union Budget, Dr Mandaviya said,  the Prime Minister’s package will provide employment and skilling opportunities to over four crore youth over a five year period. He said, an allocation of two lakh crore rupees has been made to achieve the target. The Minister said, the Labour Force Participation Rate and Worker Population Ratio have risen in the past couple of years. He said, Labour Force Participation Rate has reached 44 percent and Worker Population Ratio to 40 percent.

He also said in a decade, the employment opportunities in rural areas have increased, adding that as per the report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey, PLFS, the unemployment rate in rural areas has also decreased to 2.4 per cent in 2022-2023 from 5.3 percent in 2017-18. The Minister added that the Worker Population Ratio (WPR) shows that rural employment has increased from 48.1 percent in 2017-18 to 59.4 percent in 2022-2023.