A very explosive scenario seems brewing up in Odisha as against a staggering 11 lakh job-seeking youths registered in various employment exchanges, the State Government could notify for mere 900-1,000 vacancies last year. The enormity looks more pronounced when for the nominal vacancy notifications a whopping over 40,000 submissions came. And, actual job-getters were a measly 3.7 per cent of the total submissions.
Sample the acute joblessness in the State. In the year 2014, of the every 100 job-seekers registered in the employment exchanges across the country, three were from Odisha. But the statistics of vacancy notification turned grossly skewed when the proportional measurement was changed from 100 to 10, 000 as the vacancies notified were so miniscule. As per the latest data available with the labour Directorate and labour Ministry, the proportion of vacancies notified here were mere three to astounding per 10,000 vacancies announced nationally. In contrast, the statistics turn quite overwhelming for Gujarat as the vacancies notified there have been in scale of 6 per 10 vacancies notified nationally. The data suggests that of over 5 lakh vacancies announced nationally, Gujarat alone notified over 3.5 lakh.
Odisha fares very poor nationally as the percentage of placement to the submissions nationally were at around 12 per cent – three times that of the State. Bihar and Chhattisgarh have a rate of 19 and 10 per cent respectively. Maharashtra tops with a high rate of 56 per cent, details the data. As per the bulletin of job opportunities available with the State employment directorate, the year 2014 has seen around 6,000 job opportunities that included both central and private sectors besides that of the State sector. The shocking data is the largest job engine – the State public enterprises – is coiling up fast. When more than 135 establishments in the State sector have closed down in a span of last three years, over 25 such establishments were seen locked down in the private sector too, adds the data.
The result: From around 6,000 job opportunities notified in public sector in 2001, it shrunk to mere 1,400-1,500 by the year 2014. Meanwhile, private sector that had thrown up around 7,000 new opportunities in 2009-10 witnessed over 6,000 job-shedding by 2011-12 and witnessed a modest 3,000-4,000 new opportunities during 2012-13 and 13-14, details the data.
The reason behind timid private job creation rate lies in the findings of sixth economic census released recently. Between 2005 and 2013, the number of establishments/units grew by just 2 per cent annually against over 8 per cent in Gujarat. Neighbouring backward States like Bihar and Jharkhand have over 5 and 4 per cent growth respectively.
Significantly, the telling comment on the joblessness in the findings is: the growth rate in employment per year in Odisha between 2005 and 2013 is a measly 2.7 per cent against an over 3 per cent growth rate in labour force participation rate (lFPR). In contrast, the national employment growth rate was 4.25 per cent and lFPR at mere 2.5 per cent only. (lFPR is a determinant that measures labour force at work plus the force seeking work. Higher lFPR shows the growing unemployment)
The significant observation in the economic census regarding self employment or say entrepreneurship in Odisha is the average employed per establishment at mere 2 only, which shows they are very small sized establishments. Moreover, besides the slow growth rate, the biggest worry is non-creation of salaried job opportunities.
(The writer is a freelance journalist based in Bhubaneswar)