November 22, 2001

        The number of unemployed persons has gone up marginally from about 75 lakh in 1993-94 to 90 lakh in 1999-2000. Stating this in the Rajya Sabha today the Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shri Muni Lall said this has been mainly because the economy did not grow at the desired rate to generate required job opportunities. He said that the estimates of unemployment were obtained through labour surveys conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation. In another written reply Shri Muni Lall said that the number of job-seekers on the live register of the Employment Exchanges was 405.9 lakh as on June 1999. He said the number of job seekers with Graduate and Post Graduate qualifications including technical persons was 50.8 lakhs. He said out of this 1.7 lakh belong to engineering streams while 37.9 thousand were from medicine streams. Shri Muni Lall said that a special group has been set up by the planning commission to suggest measures to generate one crore employment opportunities during each year of 10^th Five Year Plan.