Unemployment In Urban India Grew At A Slower Rate In Jan-March: Report

According to unpublished government report reviewed by Reuters, India's urban unemployment rate between January and March 2019 fell to 9.3 percent, the lowest in at least four quarters.

The statistics ministry's quarterly jobs report could provide some relief to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, who has faced criticism for not being able to create enough jobs amid slowing economic growth.

In the previous quarter, the urban unemployment rate stood at 9.9 percent. Quarterly data prior to the April-June 2018 survey period is not available and the January-March quarter's rate is the lowest since then.

The soon to be published report did not assess rural unemployment.

The estimates were arrived at using the so-called "current weekly status" method which gives an average picture of unemployment in a short period of seven days preceding the survey period, the document said. A person is considered unemployed in a week if he did not work even for 1 hour during that week.

Joblessness among the youth aged between 15 and 29, that roughly account for over a third of India's 1.3 billion people was marginally lower at 22.5 percent in the quarter ending March 2019, from 23.7 percent in the preceding quarter.
The Indian government has in recent years faced public ire for not releasing comprehensive jobs data regularly.