Unemployment

Unemployment

Meaning of Full Employment

Full employment refers to a situation in which all the workers who are capable of working and willing to work get an employment at reasonable wages. It does not imply that all adults have jobs.

Meaning of unemployment

Unemployment refers to a situation in which the workers who are capable of working and willing to work do not get employment.

Unemployment Estimates

A person working 8 hours a day for 73 days of the year is regarded as employed on a standard person year basis. The following are the three estimates of unemployment generated in the 27th round of NSS (National Sample Survey).

Usual Principal Status unemployment: It is measured as number of persons who remained unemployed for a major part of the year. This measure is more appropriate to those in search of regular employment e.g., educated and skilled persons who may not accept casual work. This is also referred to as 'open unemployment'.

Weekly Status unemployment: It refers to the number of persons who did not find even an hour of work during the survey week.

Daily Status unemployment: It refers to the number of persons who did not find work on a day or some days during the survey week.Causes of Unemployment

High Population growth: The galloping increase in population of our country during the last decade has further aggravated the unemployment problem in the country. Due to rapidly increasing population of the country, a dangerous situation has arisen in which the magnitude of unemployment goes on increasing during each plan period.

Insufficient Rate of Economic Progress: Although India is a developing country, the rate of growth is inadequate to absorb the entire labour force in the country. The opportunities of employment are not sufficient to absorb the additions in the labour force of the country, which are taking place as result of the rapidly increasing population in India.

Absence of employment opportunities in activities other than agriculture: As enough other employment opportunities are not available, agriculture is the principal area of employment in our country. Thus, pressure on land is high, as about 2/3 of the labour force is engaged in agriculture. Land is thus overcrowded and a large part of the work force is underemployed and suffer from disguised unemployment.

Seasonal Employment: Agriculture in India offers seasonal employment; thus agricultural labour remains idle during the off-season.

Joint Family System: Existence of joint family system in India promotes disguised unemployment. Usually the members of a family work on their family farms or do family business. There are more workers on a family farm than what would be needed on them.