The general perception over the last several years has been that India is facing jobless growth. However, it has come to light, in a Mint report, that employment opportunities actually outnumbered job seekers in the period extending from 2009-10 to 2015-16 – contrary to the perception.

According to Labour Bureau’s data, 75 million jobs were created in this period, against the 61 million who joined the job search. With “employment opportunities outnumbering job seekers by 23%, the rate of unemployment also declined,” said the report.

From 2009 to 2016, the average annual rate of growth of job creation has been 3.2 per cent, higher than the average pan-India rate of growth of job seekers, which stood at 2.4 per cent.

Interestingly, despite the availability of job opportunities across India, state-wide differences are significant. Also, in some cases, the number of jobs exceeded the number of job seekers because of a decline in labour and workforce participation rate for females.

R Gopalan and M C Singhi, the authors of the Mint report, recommend creation of strategies that help improve the female labour force participation rate, increase the ratio of female to male job seekers, and create supplementary opportunities for the self-employed.