Page 713 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

340 Economic Survey 2020-21 Volume 2

Trade also shows that employment reported by startups increased from 1.52 lakh in January-
December, 2019 to 1.75 lakh in January-December, 2020 due to increase in the number of

active recognition of startups from 11,694 to 14,784 in the same period.

Figure 4: Pay Roll Data of Net New EPF Subscribers, age-bucket
wise (years) for the period from April-October, 2020 (in thousands)

450.0
400.0
350.0
300.0
250.0
(thousands) 200.0
150.0
100.0
50.0
0.0
-50.0
-100.0
Age-bucket < 21 22-25 26-28 29-35 > 35

Source: EPFO
Note: Data is provisional as updation of employees’ records is a continuous process and gets updated

in subsequent month/s.

Unemployment

10.18 Unemployment rates at all India level, for all ages, as per usual status, declined marginally
to 5.8 per cent in 2018-19 from 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. Figure 5 compares the unemployment
rate for various categories like rural, urban, youth, SC, OBC etc., between 2017-18 and 2018-
19. Most of the categories are either on the red line (45-degree) or below the line, which show
that unemployment rates have remained the same or declined in 2018-19 as compared to
2017-18.
10.19 The decline in unemployment rate is widespread across all the categories. The highest
decline in unemployment rates is seen among those who have received formal vocational/
technical training. The level of unemployment is recorded the highest, 20.2 per cent, among
urban youth (age 15-29 years) and the lowest for the subgroup ‘not literates’ at 1.1 per cent
among the persons of age 15 years and above with different educational attainments.

10.20 Youth unemployment rates of State/UTs in 2018-19 for urban and rural areas are plotted
in Figure 6. The youth unemployment rates varies widely across States in India. The States like
Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, and Bihar are on the high extreme while the States such
as Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal and Sikkim are on the lower extreme. States/UTs on the
red line or close to it, such as Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, indicates that their
youth unemployment rate in urban areas is almost equal to the unemployment rate in rural
areas, and the States/UTs above the line indicate higher youth unemployment in urban than
rural. It is quite visible that unemployment rates in urban are much higher than the rural sector
in most of the States/UTs.