Mumbai: At a convenient time when the BJP-led NDA government has retained power, the Statistics Ministry on Friday released the official unemployment figure, at 6.1 per cent, a 45-year high in the 12-month period from July 2017 to June 2018.
Earlier this year, a report citing National Sample Survey Office's periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, the publication of which was withheld, also revealed similar unemployment statistics of 6.1 per cent.
The unemployment figure was for 2017-2018 and should have been released before the election this month which Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party won by a landslide.
The figures were leaked by a newspaper in January which said it was the worst since 1972-73. The government insisted then that the report was not ready.
However, chief statistician Pravin Srivastava said, "It's a new design and it's a news metric, so it is unfair to compare it from the past data."
"From 2017-18 onwards, you will be getting regular estimates using this as a base," he added.
When asked as to what could this data mean, Srivastava said: "I have no means to do a retrospective analysis."
When asked what caused the delay, officials cited implementation of new technology and methods. This was contrary to the viewpoint of several experts who expressed doubt over the unemployment and growth rate figures, alleging that the government was suppressing uncomfortable data.
The official data showed 7.8 per cent of all employable urban youth as being jobless during the survey period, while the percentage for the rural areas stood at 5.3 per cent.
The unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed in the total labour force. Nearly 10 million youth join the country's workforce every year.
The data pose a huge challenge to the Modi government which has returned to power for a second term. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has plunged to its lowest in the last five years to touch 5.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018-19.
The manufacturing sector, which provides employment to a large number of workers, has also been largely sluggish.
India growth slumps to 5.8 per cent in first quarter
India's economic growth suffered a third straight quarterly fall in the first three months of 2019 to 5.8 per cent, according to government figures, throwing up an immediate challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new administration.
GDP growth for the world's sixth biggest economy was down from 6.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2018 and came well below predictions of 6.3 per cent given by many analysts.
The announcement meant India had lost its place as the world's fastest-growing major economy to China, which is currently on 6.4 per cent growth.
The Indian government also estimated that the economy grew by 6.8 per cent in the year up to March 31, down from 7.2 per cent the year before.
The figures were released only hours after Modi named Nirmala Sitharaman as new finance minister in his government, which took office Friday.
The right-wing government won a landslide election victory this month but has been on the defensive over its handling of the economy.
While the economy has regularly grown at about 7.0 per cent since Modi came to power in 2014, it has failed to create enough jobs for the 1.2 million Indians who come on the labour market each month.
