Jairam Ramesh attacks Centre, says "unemployment rate today is the highest"

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the country, Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh lashed out at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government over the unemployment rate.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the country, Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh lashed out at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government over the unemployment rate. Taking a jibe at Union Minister Anurag Thakur for deriding the ILO's Employment Report as a symptom of India's "slave mentality," the Congress leader said, "Instead, he made the absurd claim of having added 52 million new formal jobs between FY20 and FY23 based on the EPFO, ESI, and National Pension Scheme databases."

The Congress leader further stated that, as many economists have since proved, the total job creation between FY20-23 was at best 2.27 crore. These 2.27 crore jobs over three years are a far cry from Modi Sarkar's original promise of creating 2 crore jobs a year. "However, it now appears that even this 2.27 crore figure is an overestimation," he added. Substantiating his argument, he said, "The Supreme Court verdict in 2020 required the EPFO to include contractual workers at any establishment that employs more than 20 people. A substantial number of workers who were already employed are now being reflected in EPFO data; these are not new jobs created."

He further said that part of the net increase in EPFO has to do with ease of registration - the process is now online, free of charge, and hassle-free, without requiring a visit to the EPFO office. Subscribers can now transfer their PF accounts while changing employers, without having to submit a claim for final settlement. He argued that establishments with 20 or more employees come under the purview of the EPF Act. Firms that move from 19 to 20 employees in one year will suddenly appear in the EPFO data as 20 new "jobs" even though net job creation is a single new job, he asserted.

Taking to social media platform X, he wrote, "Whatever statistical jugglery they engage in to cover it up, the truth remains: the unemployment rate today is the highest it has been in the last four decades." (ANI)

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