You are here
- Unemployment exists when people who are willing to work at the going wages cannot find jobs .
-
For example,
- Sakal’s mother Sheela looked after domestic chores , and children and helped her husband Buta in the field. Sheela is not interested in working outside her domestic domain.
- Sakal’s brother Jeetu and sister Seetu spend their time roaming and playing . Both of them are too small to be counted in the workforce population .
- So, neither Jeetu, Seetu nor Sheela can be counted as unemployed .
- The workforce population includes people from 15 years to 59 years.
- Sakal’s brother and sister do not fall within this age group so they cannot be called unemployed.
- Sakal’s mother Sheela works for the family . She is not willing to work outside her domestic domain for payment. She too cannot be called unemployed .
- Sakal’s grandparents (although not mentioned in the story) cannot be called unemployed.
- In India, we have unemployment in rural and urban areas but the nature of unemployment differs in rural and urban areas.
-
In
rural areas
, there is
seasonal
and
disguised unemployment
.
- Seasonal Unemployment occurs when people are not able to find work during some months of the year .
- People dependent upon agriculture usually face seasonal unemployment .
- There are certain busy seasons when sowing , harvesting , weeding and threshing are done.
- The rest of the months do not provide much work to the people dependent on agriculture.
- In disguised unemployment, people appear to be employed but their contribution is not needed .
- This usually happens among family members engaged in agricultural activity.
- The work requires the service of five people but engages eight people .
- The contribution made by the three extra people does not add to the contribution made by the five people . If three people are removed the productivity of the field will not decline .
- The field requires the service of five people and the three extra people are disguised as unemployed .
- Urban areas mostly have educated unemployment .
- In urban areas, educated unemployment has become common .
- Many youths with matriculation , graduation and post-graduation degrees are not able to find jobs .
- Unemployment among graduates and post-graduates has increased faster than among matriculates.
- There is a paradoxical manpower situation as excess manpower exists in certain categories while shortages exist in others .
- There is unemployment among technically qualified people on one hand, while there is a dearth of technical skills required for economic growth .
- Unemployment leads to the wastage of manpower resources . People who should be an asset to the economy become liabilities .
- There is also a feeling of hopelessness and despair among the youth because they do not have enough money to support their families.
- The inability of educated people who are willing to work to find gainful employment implies a great social waste .
- Unemployment increases economic overload because of the dependence of the unemployed on the working population increases .
- This affects the quality of life of an individual as well as of society .
- When a family has to live on a bare subsistence level there is a general decline in its health status and rising withdrawal from the school system.
- Hence, unemployment hurts the overall growth of an economy .
- An increase in unemployment is an indicator of a depressed economy .
- It also wastes resources , which could have been gainfully employed .
- If people cannot be used as a resource they naturally become a liability to the economy .
- In the case of India, statistically, the unemployment rate is low.
- A large number of people represented with low income and productivity are counted as employed .
- They appear to work throughout the year but in terms of their potential and income , it is not adequate for them.
- The work that they are pursuing seems forced upon them . They may therefore want other work of their choice .
- Poor people cannot afford to sit idle . They tend to engage in any activity irrespective of its earning potential .
- Their earnings keep them on a bare subsistence level .
- Moreover, the employment structure is characterised by self-employment in the primary sector .
- The whole family contributes to the field even though not everybody is needed . So there is disguised unemployment in the agriculture sector . But the entire family shares what has been produced.
- This concept of sharing work in the field and the produce raised reduced the hardship of unemployment in the rural sector .
- But this does not reduce the poverty of the family, gradually surplus labour from every household tends to migrate from the village in search of jobs .
-
The
employment scenario
in the three sectors.
- Agriculture is the most labour-absorbing sector of the economy but in recent years, there has been a decline in the dependence of the population on agriculture partly because of disguised unemployment .
- Some of the surplus labour in agriculture has moved to either the secondary or the tertiary sector .
- In the secondary sector , small-scale manufacturing is the most labour-absorbing .
- In the tertiary sector , various new services are now appearing like biotechnology , information technology and so on.
