The latest report of the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) by the National Statistical Office (NSO) is also significant in the sense that it provides an opportunity to closely observe and understand the consequences of two unusual situations that have arisen in the country over a short period of time. Makes it According to this report released on Monday, the unemployment rate among the population of 15 years and above in urban areas in the quarter April to June 2021 was found to be 12.6 percent. If we look at the figures for the same period a year ago, then this rate was 20.8 percent, but in the quarter just before April-June, that is, in the period January to March 2021, this rate had come down to 9.3 percent. This trend of the graph coming down from the top and then climbing again is visible in other parts of the report as well. For example, if we look at the situation of urban women, the unemployment rate in the population of 15 years and above, which was 21.1 percent in April-June 2020, came down to 11.8 percent in January-March 2021 and in the period April-June 2021. Then it went up to 14.3 percent.
It is to be noted that April-June 2020 was the period when the Central Government announced the longest nationwide lockdown in view of the fears related to the global outbreak of Corona. Naturally, this led to an unexpected increase in the unemployment rate. Exactly a year after this i.e. in the period of April-June 2021, the country was battling the havoc of the second wave of Corona. This also affected all walks of life and especially saw a tremendous increase in unemployment. But these figures also indicate the vitality of Indian society. As other earlier figures from that period have been showing, these figures also corroborate the fact that the country had managed to rectify the situation to a great extent by taking advantage of the slight delay. The second wave hit him again. But after this second wave, the situation started returning to normal and as the restrictions related to Corona were lifted, economic activities also intensified. The impact of this will be seen in the coming figures. But in the meantime, a new extraordinary challenge has come before the economy in the form of the Russia-Ukraine war. However, the challenges will keep coming in different forms, but at present, the difficult challenge before the government remains to provide maximum employment opportunities while keeping the inflation rate under control as much as possible. In the current situation, the answer can be an attempt to give impetus to the economy through government spending as far as possible. That is why in the budget, the government had proposed a huge increase in capital expenditure.
