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Lower employment growth a cause for concern: Survey

ECONOMIC SURVEY

The Economic Survey on Friday warned that employment growth in the organised sector was waning with the spread of reforms and is a major cause of concern in the face of growing population.

As per the data released by the Survey (2000-01), public sector showed a negative employment trend in 1998 and a nil growth in 1999 even as alleviation of poverty remained a major challenge before the nation.

Although share of the poor in percentage terms came down to 26.1 per cent during the last fiscal, the total number of poor people remained constant because of growth in population, the Survey said adding that employment-intensive economic growth alone could facilitate poverty reduction in the long run.

However, this strategy needed to be complemented with a focus on provision of basic services for improving the quality of life through state intervention in the form of anti-poverty programmes, it said.

Government was thus faced with the challenging task of meeting the backlog of unemployed as well as new additions to the labour force with the economic reforms having led to structural changes in the nature of the job market.

While the annual growth rate of employment in the organised sector, both public and private, fell from 1.44 per cent in 1991 to 0.04 per cent in 1999, the Survey noted that the post reform period saw a major contribution by the private sector.

PTI

Economic Survey 2000-2001
Budget 2001
Money

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