Unemployment

Unemployment exists when a person, 15 to 59 years of age, is willing to work at acceptable wages, cannot find a job. Such a person is called an unemployed person. The form of unemployment is different in rural and urban areas. In villages, people face seasonal unemployment or disguised unemployment while in large towns and cities, people face educated unemployment.

Seasonal unemployment occurs when people cannot find work for a few months in a year. Disguised unemployment occurs when people appear to be employed, but do not increase the productivity at their place of work. People facing disguised unemployment have to find other work where they can actually be productive.

The unemployment faced by people who are matriculates, graduates or post-graduates is called educated unemployment. Studies suggest that there are more unemployed graduates and post-graduates than unemployed matriculates. 

Evils of unemployment are:

• It wastes precious human resources, making people hopeless victims of depression.
• Creates economic overload. This is a situation where a small percentage of employed population supports a large percentage of unemployed people.
• Deterioration in the health and quality of life.
• Parents unwillingly withdraw their children from school when they can’t afford their education due to unemployment.
• Negatively impacts on the overall economy of a nation.

At 7.2% unemployment rate in India is comparatively low in the world. Economic activities are divided into primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. In the primary sector, agriculture employs the largest number of people. In the secondary sector, small-scale manufacturing units employ the largest number of people. The tertiary sector has opened new avenues like biotechnology and information technology to generate a large number of jobs for people.