Over one in four youth unemployed in Nagaland, says PLFS survey

September 30, 2024 56 Views No Comment

Moa Jamir
Dimapur | September 30

Over one in four young people in Nagaland is unemployed, with the rate surpassing one-third in urban areas, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

Released on September 23, the survey revealed that the unemployment rate among youth (aged 15-29) stood at 27.4%, marking a reversal of a four-year downward trend. The rate was evenly distributed between males and females, with rates of 27.9% and 26.6%, respectively.

However, the report, covering the period from July 2023 to June 2024, highlighted a significantly higher youth unemployment rate in urban areas at 39.6%, compared to 23.1% in rural areas.

While previous PLFS reports had consistently underscored the concerning employment situation for Nagaland’s youth, the latest data represents a departure from three consecutive years of decline. In 2019-20, the rate was as high as 70.1%, but it had gradually decreased to 18.5% in 2022-23. The current rate of 27.4% signifies a near 50% increase from the previous year, mirroring the overall rise in the state’s general unemployment rate.

Nagaland’s youth unemployment rate ranks second highest among Indian states, following Kerala at 29.9%. The national average was 10.2%.

However, if Union Territories of Lakshadweep (36.2%) and Andaman & Nicobar Island (33.6) are included, Nagaland’s position drops to fourth.

Among the north-east states, Arunachal Pradesh has the second-highest youth unemployment rate at 20.9%, followed by Manipur (22.9), Assam (14.1), Meghalaya (14%) and Mizoram (13.3%).Tripura and Sikkim have lower rates than the national average at 6.8% and 7.7%, respectively.

Youth & unemployment rate
Persons aged 15-29 years are considered as the youth in the PLFS report while unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons within the labour force or “economically active” population.

The data used in the current report is based on the usual status (ps+ss), which considers both the usual principal status and subsidiary status.

The labour force estimate includes individuals who worked or were actively seeking work for a significant portion of the past 365 days and those who worked at least 30 days during that reference period of the survey.

The PLFS has been conducted annually by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under MoSPI since 2017 and 2023-24 edition was the seventh annual report brought out by NSSO on the basis of data collected from July 2023 – June 2024.

The major objectives of PLFS are to measure employment and unemployment across the country.

According to the MoSPI, the latest survey in Nagaland covered 71 villages, 568 households, and 2,393 persons in rural areas.
In the urban areas, it covered 128 blocks covering 1,024 households and 4,616 persons.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/over-one-in-four-youth-unemployed-in-nagaland-says-plfs-survey