No ‘Spin-Doctoring’ Can Change Fact That 2014-24 Saw ‘Jobloss Growth’: Jairam

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday dismissed as “half-truths” the Government's assertions of creating eight crore employment opportunities between 2021 and 2024 and 6.2 crore net subscribers joining the EPFO database, and said no “spin-doctoring” can take away from the fact that 2014-24 has seen “jobloss growth”.

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Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that amidst the “U-turns and scandals” that have marked the last few months of this “tottering” Government, “the non-biological PM and his drum beaters have tried to find some solace in their economic record, claiming to have created eight crore employment opportunities between 2021 and 2024”.

“This claim initially emerged from the RBI KLEMS data, which we had earlier countered on July 15th, 2024. The Government's spin doctors have now mustered another statistic – that of 6.2 crore net subscribers joining the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) database between September 2017 and March 2024. Both claims are based on half-truths,” he said in a statement.

To justify its claim of eight crore new jobs, the Government adopts an expansive definition of employment, without registering the quality and circumstances of employment, Ramesh argued.

A large part of the claimed “employment growth” is recording unpaid household work done by women as “employment”, he said, adding that it is not new job creation.The '80 million new jobs' headline also elides discussion on the quality of jobs, Ramesh said.

Amidst the poor economic climate, the share of salaried, formal employment in the labour market has decreased, he said and pointed out that workers are moving to low-productivity informal and agricultural jobs, which KLEMS is capturing as jobs created.

“This is why the KLEMS data shows an increase in employment during the COVID-19 pandemic years, when large sections of the economy fully shut down. While crucial sectors like education saw 12 lakh fewer jobs in 2020-2021, a whopping 1.8 crore ‘jobs' were ‘created' in agriculture,” he said.

Thus, factory workers, teachers, miners, etc. Who returned home during COVID-19 and had to return to farming and agricultural labour are registered as a “job created” in agriculture, Ramesh argued.

This shift to low-productivity, poorly paid jobs is an economic travesty, which the Government is touting as an achievement, the Congress leader said.

“Finally, in the absence of a Population Census since 2011, the KLEMS statisticians assumed a population level to arrive at their projections. Several economists have indicated that the population estimate used was too large, resulting in an overestimation of jobs created,” Ramesh said.