Haryana's unemployment rate the highest in India, shows analysis

State's education performance has also slipped in the last five years

Haryana, last week, announced that the domicile quota would kick in for private-sector jobs with salaries of under Rs 30,000 per month, effectively putting an immediate stop to hiring for such positions in the state. Companies will need to register and list all employees earning below Rs 30,000 per month within three months before hiring resumes.

The state legislature had in November 2020 passed the “Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Bill 2020” to reserve 75 per cent jobs in the private sector where the salary was less than Rs 50,000 per month.

While the government has since whittled down its stand and exclu­ded start-ups and upcoming IT/ITes companies from the requirement, the controversial law kicks in at a time when companies are already struggling from the pandemic.

The law may also exacerbate the current unemployment situation in the state, as industries may want to find places that have more amenable employment terms.

Haryana has the highest unemployment rates in the country. In the September-December quarter last year, CMIE data shows the state had an unemployment rate over three times the national average — one out of four people was unemployed as against the national average of one out of 14.

Analysis shows that Haryana hasn’t done well on education parameters either. While the state performs better than the national average in terms of college enrolment, it ranked 16th out of 35 states and Union Territories in the proportion of college enrolled population. Its rank had slipped from 14 in 2015-16.

When it came to adding college graduates in five years between 2015-16 and 2019-20, the state ranked 19th in the country. College enrolments had increased 12.3 per cent in Haryana, whereas Kerala had witnessed a 21 per cent increase.