Draft National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) job survey for 2017-18 pegged the unemployment rate in India in 2017-18 at 6.1%, a 45-year high. The yet to be released report stated that nearly one-third of the Indian states (11) had unemployment higher than the national average in 2017-18.
The Economic Survey 2017 revealed that the annual average labour migration was close to 9 million between states during 2011-16. States like Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat attracted large numbers of migrants from the Hindi-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. Census 2011 also reported an increase in inter-district migration (within the same state) from 30% between the 1991 and 2001 census to 58% between 2001 and 2011.
Ironically, the state of Kerala with the highest literacy rate of 93.91% as per Census 2011 recorded the maximum number of jobless people at 11.4% along with an increase in internal migration rate as per Economic Survey 2017. Possibly a reflection of an under-skilled industry-ready workforce which is pushing locals to migrate to other regions within the country.
Factors such as work/business, education, marriage etc. have been the key reasons cited behind such high numbers. Rising labour mobility has cut across language barriers and is more pronounced among women.