Amid Kerala’s envious achievements in human development indicators and the latest row over the Union government’s alleged ‘financial embargo’ that stifles the economic growth rate of the State, Kerala continues to top the table of unemployment, according to the data on employment and unemployment collected through the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation since 2017-18.
Also, in terms of the Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which is the percentage of employed persons in the population, Kerala is still lagging behind most of the north and northeast States, despite the State being home to over 30 lakh migrant workers. According to the results of the survey conducted in the last three years for a period from July to June, Kerala is in 23rd position with 50.5% WPR in 2022-2023 among the 28 States in the country, followed by Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Manipur, and Punjab. In simple words, WPR tells how many people in Kerala have a job as a proportion of the total population of the State.
Goa tops list
So is the case with the unemployment rate, the percentage of unemployed among the labour force. Kerala has the highest rate of unemployment in the country, at 7% after Goa (9.7%), while the national average is 3.2%. In the category of people in the age group of 15-29, Kerala has the highest unemployment in the country with 28.7% while the national average is 10%. Kerala is lagging behind the majority of the migrant-sending States to Kerala in terms of unemployment and worker population ratio.
Reasons cited
According to experts, the relatively higher level of education is pushing the unemployment rate in Kerala. One can hardly see youths in Kerala doing manual jobs associated with various trade sectors, which are highly dependent on migrants to run the show. The increase in the number of women opting for higher education has also played a major role in determining the level of unemployment. Although there is a considerable increase in the number of people looking for overseas employment, which is relatively high compared to other States, their number is not significant enough to bring down the unemployment rate in Kerala, says K.P. Kannan, Honorary Fellow, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), who earlier held a study on unemployment in Kerala.
