Unemployment in Himachal just 34 per cent: CM

The number of persons registered with employment exchanges did not depict the "real" picture of unemployment in the state which was only 34 per cent of registered unemployed, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh today claimed.
Singh was peeved over the announcement of state Transport Minister G S Bali to take "padyatra on unemployment."
The total number of youth registered in employment exchanges in the State was 8,92,988 in March 2015, whereas, total number of registrants in March, 2013 was 8,61,314, the CM said.
According to fresh survey conducted by the Department of Economic and Statistics "only about 34 per cent of the registrants are actually unemployed, which works out to about 3,03,000," the chief minister claimed.

Twenty per cent of the people registered with the employment exchanges, which comes to about 2 lakh are engaged in agriculture and allied services, whereas 29 per cent registered persons ( 2,87,399) are in private jobs and 49,551 (5 per cent) of the people registered with the exchanges are already in Government jobs, he said.
Four per cent of the registrants (39,641) are in other services or are housewives, whereas 79,282 persons (8 per cent) are engaged in business and other related activities.

All these persons are in employment, but still continue to be on the live registers of the employment exchanges in the State for further improving their employment prospects, the CM said.

A fresh survey would be conducted by October 31 this year to determine the actual unemployment scenario in the State making clear distinction from the underemployment and self-employment levels, chief minister said.
On an average about 70,000 youth are registered with the employment exchanges for employment in the State every year.
However, due to the Skill Development Allowance Scheme launched by the present State Government, this number has gone upto about 1.50 lakh annually as registration of names in employment exchange is necessary for availing benefit under the Scheme.
The State Government envisages providing skill development to more than 4 lakh youth in the State during the five years of the present State Government.

More than 74,000 youth have already been given benefits under the Scheme.
Chief Minister said that Employment generation is on top of agenda of the Government and during the past two and a half years, more than 25,500 posts have been created/filled in the Government sector alone.
In addition, about 25,000 youth have been provided jobs in the new industrial units approved by Single Window Clearance and Monitoring Authority during this in the State.