Nagaland has the highest unemployment rate in India

Huge variation in redundancy when compared with the rest of North East states  

Morung Express News
Dimapur | June 26

Nagaland state has the highest unemployment rate among the states and union territories (UTs) in India, according to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India.


Worryingly, the worst affected were the youth under the age group of 15-26 years. 

As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for July 2017-June 2018, the unemployment rate in Nagaland for 15-29 years age-group stood at an overall 56%.

 Breaking it up, under the rural category, the rate was 56.2% (male 52.2% and female 58.6%) and 55.2% in the urban category (male 48.6% and female 65.5%). 

In both categories, unemployment rates among the female were higher than the male.  

When compared with the rest of the North East (NE) states, the divide are stark. Unemployment rate in Meghalaya stood at just 5.1%; Sikkim at 10.8%;  Mizoram at 28.6%;  Assam at 27%; Manipur at 35.7%;  and Tripura at 19.9%. 

After Dadra & Nagar Haveli at 1.1%, Meghalaya has the second lowest unemployment rate in the aforementioned age-group. 

Correspondingly, unemployment rate in the age group of 15-59 was also highest in Nagaland at 22.9%. 

Here also, the huge variation in unemployment rates and Nagaland pale in comparsion with the rest of the NE states. The rates were: Meghalaya -1.6%; Mizoram-10.8%; Manipur-12.3%; Assam- 8.4%; Tripura -7.2%; and Sikkim-3.6%. 

Country-wide, PLFS pegged the unemployment rate at 6.1%, with the rate lower among females than males. Goa and Kerala had high female unemployment (respectively 26.0% and 23.3%) but their respective male unemployment rates are three times lower (8.1% and 6.2%), giving them overall rates of 13.9% and 11.4% respectively. 

PLFS was launched with the objective of measuring employment every three months in urban areas and once a year in both rural and urban areas, the Ministry said in the report.  

Education levels was also used as a criterion for stratification at the ultimate level with in order to measure the impact of  various policy interventions such as the Right to Education Act, it added. 

The Minister of State (Independent Charge), MoSPI  Rao Inderjit Singh also cited the report  in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on June 26.

The alarming grim figures once again is indicative of the acute lack of employment opportunities, in particular for the educated youth in Nagaland -  a sorry state of affairs spending an average 11 years in formal education. 

As in December 31, 2018, there were 75,046 applicants remaining on the live register of employment exchanges in Nagaland according to a report tabled by the Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio at the Assembly in February 2019. The figure had increased from 68, 504 in December 2016.