India's Unemployment Rate Jumps To 8.30% In December 2022, Highest In 16 Months

India's unemployment rate has ended the year 2022 at its highest mark in 16 months. December¡¯s unemployment rate rose to 8.30% from 8% in the previous month of November, data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has shown.

Indi's unemployment rate had gone beyond the 9% mark for most days in the first three weeks of December month.

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The urban unemployment rate rose to 10.09% in December from 8.96% in the previous month, while the rural unemployment rate slipped to 7.44% from 7.55%, the data showed, as per a Reuters report.

"Not As Bad As It May Seem"

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Mahesh Vyas, managing director of the CMIE, said the rise in the unemployment rate was "not as bad as it may seem," as it came on top of a healthy increase in the labour participation rate, which shot up to 40.48% in December, the highest in 12 months.

For the uninitiated, CMIE is an independent private limited entity that serves as an economic think-tank and a business information company.

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Employment Rate Highest Since January

"Most importantly, the employment rate has increased in December to 37.1%, which again is the highest since January 2022," he told Reuters.

The unemployment rate had declined to 7.2% in the July-September quarter compared to 7.6% in the previous quarter, according to separate quarterly data compiled by the state-run National Statistical Office (NSO) and released in November.

In December, the unemployment rate rose to 37.4% in Haryana, followed by 28.5% in Rajasthan and 20.8% in Delhi, CMIE data showed.

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Creating Jobs The Biggest Challenge Ahead Of 2024 Elections

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Containing high inflation and creating jobs for millions of young people entering the job market seem to remain the biggest challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration ahead of the national elections in 2024.

The main opposition Congress party had launched a five-month-long cross-country march in September from the southern city of Kanyakumari to Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir region, to mobilise public opinion on issues such as high prices, unemployment and what it says are the divisive politics of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, the Reuters report mentioned.

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