Jobless people in country number 7 million

New Delhi, July 2: The unemployment situation in the country is deteriorating year after year and the number of jobless had reached the 7.27 million mark by April this year, according to official sources. As against this, the sources pointed out, about 6.9 million jobless were seeking assistance at the employment exchanges in December 1972. Of them, about 3.3. million or about 48 per cent were educated (matriculates and above). In 1969, the first year of the Fourth Plan, the number of unemployed was less than half of what it is now. The States with comparatively larger number of jobless on the live registers of employment exchanges are: West Bengal (1-4 million), Bihar (900,000), Uttar Pradesh (800,000), Maharashtra (690,000) and Tamil Nadu (500,000). In the case of educated-unemployed, nearly two-thirds of them belong to six States: West Bengal, U.P., Bihar, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The information available from the official sources regarding levels of employment in the organised sectors of the economy relates to the employment market information programmes covering all public sector establishments and those private sector non-agricultural establishments which employ ten or more persons.