Page 7 - Unemployment

Youth would not use mobiles 12 hrs day if there was no unemployment: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said youngsters would not be using their mobile phones for 12 hours a day had there been no unemployment in the country. Rahul Gandhi said this while addressing a gathering in Sambhal as part of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. The Congress leader's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra reached Sambhal via Moradabad and Amroha, where Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders welcomed Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Speaking at the Chandausi intersection, Rahul Gandhi asked a man, "How many hours do you use your mobile?" to which he replied, "Twelve hours." Responding to this, Rahul Gandhi said, "There is no employment in India, that is why you use your mobile phone for 12 hours. Did you know that the sons of big businessmen don't watch Reels, they count money 24 hours (a day)?" "If you get employment, you will watch Reels for half an hour and work for 12 hours," the Congress leader said. Rahul Gandhi -- who has claimed several times during the yatra that p

Under-employment a problem for India: Panagariya as he pitches for reforms

Pitching for labour reforms, the chairman of the 16th Finance Commission and former NITI Aayog Chairman Arvind Panagariya on Saturday said that "unemployment," is not a problem for India but "under-employment" is. Speaking at a session 'The Economic Whisper: how to fuel growth with jobs' at the concluding day of the two-day ABP Network's 'Ideas of India Summit 3.0' here, he also sounded optimistic that the jobs problem in the country will be solved over the next 10 years. "Unemployment is really not India's problem in my view. Our problem is underemployment, so productivity is low. So the job that can be done by one person often gets done by two people or maybe three people. And that is where I think, the real challenge of jobs is creating well-paid high-productivity jobs," he said. Stating that in the economy's jargon, India is a labour-abundant and capital-scarce country, he said, "What we have done is to put much of the capital in very selective sectors which are in any case very

India's urban jobless rate eases to 6.5% in Q3FY24, shows PLFS data

The jobless rate in urban areas has been steadily declining since the high of 12.6 per cent recorded in the COVID-affected April-June quarter of FY22

Hiring activity down 5% in January, but registers sequential rise: Report

Hiring activity saw a 5 per cent decline in January, while sequentially it was up 3 per cent, a report said on Monday. The sequential increase was largely due to an improvement in demand for skilled talent in the tourism, telecom, and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industries, foundit Insights Tracker said in the report. The hiring activity was down 5 per cent in January compared to the same month last year, it said. "...we could trace the steady growth of the tourism industry, which aligns with global trends and the government's interests," Sekhar Garisa, CEO, foundit (previously Monster APAC and ME), a Quess company, said. He said the Budget's focus on developing iconic tourist destinations and promoting spiritual tourism aligns with the increasing demand for unique and immersive travel experiences. "This forward-thinking approach aligns perfectly with the evolving trends we observed at foundit, where the travel and tourism sector has seen an impressive 21 per

Focused cuts, fewer layers: Tech industry layoffs enter new phase

Slashing tech work forces would have been anathema in Silicon Valley just a few years ago

German unemployment edges down by 2,000 to 2.694 million in January

The Federal Labour Office said the number of people out of work decreased by 2,000 in seasonally adjusted terms from December to 2.694 million

Europe's economic blahs drag on with zero growth at end of last year

Europe's economy failed to expand at the end of 2023, with the stagnation now lasting for more than a year amid higher energy prices, costlier credit and lagging growth in powerhouse Germany. Zero economic growth for the October-to-December period of last year follows a 0.1 per cent contraction in the three months before that, according to figures released on Tuesday by EU statistics agency Eurostat. That extends a miserable run of economic blahs: The 20 countries that use the euro currency have not shown significant growth since the third quarter of 2022, when the economy grew 0.5 per cent. And the start of this year looks no better, with indicators of business activity still flashing red for contraction. Plus, disruptions to shipping in the Red Sea have constricted global trade through the Suez Canal, a major route between Asia and Europe, surging shipping costs and threatening to boost inflation. The eurozone is still struggling to find a bottom, said Holger Schmieding, chief ..

PM Modi failed to provide 20 mn jobs per year: K'taka CM Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to provide two crore jobs per year as promised by him

TikTok cuts 60 jobs in sales, advertising division as tech layoffs continue

The positions affected were based in Los Angeles, New York, Austin and overseas, a company spokesperson said

SAP to restructure 8,000 jobs in push towards AI, shares hit record

The company said it will spend 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) on the programme to either retrain employees with AI skills or to replace them through voluntary redundancy programs

Delhi pollution crisis: Informal sector workers grapple with job loss

Saroj, a 55-year-old construction worker residing near the Bakkarwala landfill site, embodies the challenges faced by informal sector workers amid the escalating air pollution crisis in Delhi. In the wake of frequent construction bans to combat air pollution, Saroj found herself periodically unemployed for the past three months, grappling to make ends meet. For people like her, whose primary income source is construction work, the shutdown presents a formidable financial setback. "There has been no stable construction work since October (Diwali) and we have been sitting at home for three months now. The contractor informs us that work will only resume in a few months when the air pollution situation improves," she said. Working in the construction industry, despite its polluting nature, has become an unavoidable necessity for these workers, exposing them to some of the most severe health repercussions. "Fever, cough and cold and stomach issues are very common for us living close t

Online furniture retailer Wayfair to cut 1,650 jobs to trim costs

The company has been taking cost-savings initiatives since August 2022, in a bid to operate more efficiently. Last year, it said it would cut 1,750 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce

Govt focusing on skill development to make youths job ready: Chandrasekhar

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday said the government has been focusing on skill development of youths to make them ready for jobs and they should grab the opportunity. Before 2014, out of the 42 crore workers of the country, 31 crore used to go for work without skill and education and skill but now the scenario has been drastically changed following launching of Skill India in 2015, Chandrasekhar said. The minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship was speaking at a Kushal Bharat Viksit Bharat' programme at Town Hall here. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed the 65-years of disadvantage of our young workforce by skilling and upskilling them," he said. Chandrasekhar said the country was among the fifth fragile economies in the world before 2014 and now it is among the top five economies. "It is the new India. The youths will get a lot of opportunities if they have skill and education. We are focusing on skill development of the youth of the coun

Thousands of Indian workers queue up for jobs in Israel, undeterred by war

"There is unemployment here and its because of it that people want to leave," said Lekharam, a mason who was among the workers gathered at a recruitment camp in Rohtak, 66 km (40 miles) from Delhi

Canada plans cap on int'l students amid housing crisis, unemployment

Miller said he will be looking at the possibility of setting a cap on international students to help reduce the demand for housing in both the first and second quarters of this year

Cong slams Modi govt over issue of unemployment, says job famine worsened

The Congress on Thursday alleged that the country's "jobs famine" has worsened in the last ten years of Modi government, and accused the prime minister of miserably failing to fulfil his promise of creating two crore jobs every year. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said India's youth deserve growth that delivers them good quality jobs not joblessness and 'pakora' shops. According to data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, unemployment for youth aged 25-29 was the highest in almost four years, at 15.5 percent in December 2023, he said. "This means that unemployment now is worse than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic," he alleged. For youth aged 20-24, he said the unemployment rate hit a peak of 45.5 percent. Even for those between ages 30 and 34, the unemployment rate is at a three-year high, he claimed. "The crisis is especially bad in rural areas, and more and more families are turning to MGNREGA as there are no other jobs available," he said. "It is absolute

Rahul Gandhi, Kharge identify unemployment, inflation as key problems

Cong picked Nagpur to mark its foundation day and launch its LS campaign, 'Hum Tayyar Hain', given the city's salience in shaping the ideological contours of the last hundred years of Indian politics

New US unemployment benefits claims rise again as labor market cools

The figures tend to be volatile around the holidays. The four-week moving average, which offers a clearer picture of the trend, was little changed at 212,000 last week, the lowest since late October

Unemployment most burning issue in country: Congress President Kharge

Unemployment is the most burning issue in the country, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Sunday. In an apparent attack on the BJP-led Centre, Kharge said in a post on X in Hindi, "The youth of the country are asking where are the two crore jobs per year? Why is the process between recruitment exams and securing a job so complicated?" "Unemployment is the most burning issue in the country," he said. Citing the periodic labour force survey (PLFS) of July 2022-June 2023, he said, "The unemployment rate for persons aged 15-?29 years is 10 per cent." Quoting the PLFS data, the Congress president said rural unemployment in the country in the age group of 15-19 years stood at 8.3 per cent in the July 2022-June 2023 period, while urban unemployment for the same category in this period was higher at 13.8 per cent. "Why was the MSME sector destroyed, jobs of crores of youth were snatched away and their future ruined?" his post added.

'Discontents' notwithstanding, India has done well in last quarter century

While India should be concerned about disparities, the fact is that whereas three decades ago about half the people had incomes greater than $2.15 a day, today seven out of eight do, writes T N Ninan