Were eight crore new jobs created in three years?
Economists and policymakers are debating the accuracy of Indian government claims regarding the creation of eight crore new jobs over three years. Critics argue that the India-KLEMS database, which the government used to support its figures, was not designed to measure employment and may be providing misleading data.
Why it matters
The accuracy of employment data is critical for assessing the health of the Indian economy and the effectiveness of government labor policies.
E mployment, or the lack of it, has been a major issue of debate among economists and policy makers in India in recent years. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that India created “eight crore new jobs in the last three to four years”. The Prime Minister was using data from the India-KLEMS database hosted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As per this database, the total number of workers in India rose from 56.6 crore in 2020-21 to 64.3 crore in 2023-24, that is, a net rise by 7.8 crore workers. Tailing this claim, the research team of the State Bank of India (SBI) published a validating report that claimed a match between the total number of workers in the India-KLEMS database and in the NSSO’s Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), 2022-2023.
The article highlights skepticism from analysts and contrasts government claims with international labor trends, suggesting a critical view of official data.
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