India's falling exports killed 70,000 jobs in just one quarter

India’s dismal export growth is leading to massive job losses. And, after months of shrinking exports without any signs of improvement, the employment situation in Asia’s third-largest economy is set to worsen.

The jobs market is already in pain. In the July-September quarter of the 2015 fiscal year, India recorded the lowest job growth compared to the same period in 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Plummeting exports are adding to the problem. Some 70,000 jobs were lost in the second quarter of 2015 alone due to a fall in India’s exports, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry in India (Assocham). Most of these were contractual in nature, the joint study by Assocham and Thought Arbitrage, a research institute, said.

Unemployment rate in India has shot up to a five-year high of 5 per cent in 2015-16, with the figure significantly higher at 8.7 per cent for women as compared to 4.3 per cent for men, says a report by Labour Bureau. The figures could be an alarm bell for BJP-ruled government at the Centre, which has taken a series of steps such as ‘Make in India’ to create jobs for inclusive growth in the country.

According to the fifth annual employment-unemployment survey at all-India level, about 77 per cent of the households were reported to be having no regular wage/salaried person. It said the unemployment rate was estimated to be 5 per cent at all-India level under the UPS (Usual Principal Status) approach. Unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent in 2013-14, 4.7 per cent (2012-13), 3.8 per cent (2011-12) and 9.3 per cent (2009-10). Labour Bureau did not bring out any such report for 2014-15.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014 promising more employment but hasn’t really achieved much success so far. Between January and December 2015, only 135,000 new jobs were added in eight labour-intensive sectors—the lowest in six years.

truthbetold wrote:Same comment as above.

truthbetold wrote:blah..blah....But you have not identified a policy that modi govt implemented that led to the decline in exports.  

truthbetold wrote:CD,

you are not on NDTV.  If your point is low job growth means Modi loses support and you want to celebrate, please open a new bottle. But you have not identified a policy that modi govt implemented that led to the decline in exports.