Goa's unemployment rate is pegged at 13.6 per cent for November 2022, way higher than the national average of 8.1 per cent, according to data provided by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) released on Sunday. The worry is that the State's joblessness rate consistently hovered between 15 and 10 per cent this year, the consolation being a 5.5 per cent average in June.
Joblessness continues to be one of the major issues affecting Goa, the efforts and assurances of the State government notwithstanding. The figures provided by the CMIE amplify the State's glaring failure in taming unemployment, with the mega job fairs and employment figures projected through the IPB project route proving insignificant.
Take, for example, the mega job fair held recently at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium, Taleigao, that held an extraordinary promise of around 4,000-plus jobs. Against the 21,000 online registrations, only 10,000 candidates turned up at the venue, and only 500 applicants were shortlisted for jobs. Where did it go wrong, and what are the takeaways from these job fairs? Has a review been done on why candidates failed to cash in on the 4,000-odd vacancies, the requirement of the industry and the evaluation of existing resource? Do we call this result a success?
The hype created around the availability of jobs is misleading. The CMIE data could be an effective tool to understand where Goa stands among other States. For example, Chhattisgarh has an impressive 0.1 per cent unemployment rate, Uttarakhand (1.2), Odisha (1.6), Karnataka (1.8) and Meghalaya (2.1) and some of the states that have recorded the least unemployment rate in November. However, Haryana had the highest unemployment rate of 30.6 per cent, followed by Rajasthan at 24.5 pc, J&K at 23.9 pc, Bihar at 17.3 pc and Tripura at 14.5 pc.
Last month a Niti Aayog report stated that 1.1 lakh youth were unemployed in the State, only to be contested by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant with a theory that 80,000 youth employed in the private sector have not cancelled their employment cards. We cannot take comfort in the fact that some other States are worse off than Goa.
The worry for Goa is that unemployment has a spiral effect, not only on the economy of the State but also on the social side. An increasing number of teenagers and youth from across Goa are getting into social evils, including the trend of diving into drug deals because there's quick money to be made. Joblessness could have drastic consequences in a tourism boom; the sooner we realise this, the better.
The CMIE data could be used as a tool to dwell deeper into the issue and closely monitor urban and rural unemployment scenarios. Announcing inflated figures of job proposals through industries is like selling an illusion. And not accepting studies done by national agencies only reflects an ego conflict. We need to stop living in denial, get honest about the situation and work out practical ways to usher a change. Shun the 'feel good' deception that is playing out now.
