Referring to Indian unemployment as a "national crisis", Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went on the attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
Criticising Modi for not being able to fulfil his promise of job creation, Gandhi said Modi only knows how to make hollow promises.
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said, “Lack of jobs is a national crisis that is deepening. Modi government only knows how to make hollow promises and does not know how to implement them.”
रोज़गार की कमी एक ऐसी राष्ट्रीय आपदा है जो गहराती जा रही है।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 5, 2020
मोदी सरकार सिर्फ़ खोखले वादे करना जानती है, समाधान करना नहीं। pic.twitter.com/FfD8M8SGTF
According to the National Career Service Portal, the number of vacancies registered in October has come down sharply compared with September when the portal boasted 73,416 active vacancies. In October, the number was 28,618 - a drop of more than 60 per cent.
According to the data from the website, at least 10 million people are seeking jobs through the website. Jobs are being offered in at least 22 sectors including insurance, finance, and retail.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the Indian job market, with a large number of people losing their job because of the lockdown. The national lockdown to curb the spread of infection was brought into effect on 25 March and continued until the end of May. Graded relaxations from lockdown were offered at the beginning of June.
On the jobs front, data from the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), an economic research agency, pointed out in July that middle income and higher income households lost almost 30 per cent of their earnings thanks to the pandemic over the previous year.
The agency, in August this year, said that almost 18 million salaried Indians have lost their jobs since April this year.
