Government Refutes Citigroup's Employment Report, Highlights Positive Job Data

The Indian government has dismissed a Citigroup report on employment, stating it overlooked official data showing substantial job creation. The Ministry of Labour emphasized that private data sources cited by Citigroup are not as reliable or comprehensive as official statistics.

The central government on Monday strongly refuted a recent Citigroup report concerning India's employment landscape and future outlook. The Ministry of Labour and Employment asserted that the report did not analyze all official data sources available in the public domain, thus presenting a skewed perspective.

The Citigroup report, widely quoted in the media, forecasted that India will struggle to create sufficient employment opportunities even with a 7% economic growth rate. However, the Ministry highlighted that the report failed to consider comprehensive employment data from official sources like the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Reserve Bank of India's KLEMS data. The ministry stressed that India's employment generation figures, drawn from these surveys, contradicted Citigroup's claims.

Statistics from PLFS and RBI's KLEMS data indicate that India created over 80 million employment opportunities from 2017-18 to 2021-22 alone, an average of more than 20 million jobs per year. The Ministry argued that this robust job creation demonstrates the effectiveness of government initiatives to boost employment. Further, the tightening of the unemployment rate and growing trends in EPFO and NPS enrollments exemplify the improving job market.

(With inputs from agencies.)