March 7, 2002

    The Labour Minister Shri Sharad Yadav has said that the 10^th Plan focuses on providing gainful high quality employment. He said that employment has been made monitorable objective in the Plan. Shri Yadav told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the growth strategy of the 10^th Plan would lay emphasis on rapid growth of those sectors which are likely to create high quality employment opportunities and deal with the policy constraints which discourage growth of employment. He said unemployment increased from around 75 lakh (1.90%) in 1993-94 to 90 lakh (2.23%) in 1999-2000 as per Usual Status Approach. He attributed the increase in unemployment rate mainly to the economy not growing at the desired rate to provide employment opportunities.

    The Labour Minister said that the total number of job seekers, all of whom are not necessarily unemployed, registered with various Employment Exchanges in the country from January to December in 1999, 2000 and 2001 were 59.7 lakh, 60.4 lakh and 55.5 lakh respectively.