An opaque economy

Lack of reliable data on jobs hurts accountability, sentiment

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) will be conducting an annual survey of households on employment in 2018-19, according to a report in this newspaper this week. The issue that is yet to be decided is whether the survey should stick to the April-March cycle or shift to the June-July cycle. A shift, obviously, will undermine comparability. But the bigger question is why has there been a delay in mapping unemployment in the country. It is worth noting that the last such survey took place in 2011-12, as a consequence of some methodological questions about a previous survey in 2009-10.