Employment on voters' minds

As Uttar Pradesh gets busy with Assembly elections, a pre-poll survey said 20 per cent voters feel the availability of jobs was the most important issue in the state. 

This figure could be important considering 2.5 million voters will cast their vote for the first time in the 2017 elections.

Although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began working with school- and college-going new voters, many of them will be influenced by the leadership of the Samajwadi Party-Congress combine, led by Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.

But at the core of their concern is jobs, IndiaSpend has found.

While the number of unemployed in UP per 1,000 of the working-age population decreased from 82 to 52 between 2009 and 2015, it was higher than the Indian average in 2015-16 (37), labour ministry data show. Youth unemployment was much higher with 148 of those between the ages of 18 and 29 per 1,000 people unemployed in 2015-16. 

As many as 237 per 1,000 working-age people (between the ages of 18 and 29 years), who are graduates, were unemployed in UP, according to labour ministry data from 2015-16. Getting a job is a serious preoccupation in this election.

Data: IndiaSpend