Artful statistical jugglery: Congress attacks govt over '8 crore new jobs' claim

The Congress on Monday, 15 July, countered the Centre's claim that eight crore new jobs have been created, alleging that the government has done some "artful statistical jugglery" to claim job creation as it has failed to pay attention to the "quality and circumstances" of employment.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that at a time when India faces a "severe Modi-made unemployment crisis", when lakhs of young people apply for each and every job, "the self-anointed non-biological PM is busy reacting the only way he knows -- by applying his patented 3D model of denying, distracting, and distorting".

He said that based on new RBI estimates, the government is claiming a booming job market.

"The self-appointed divinity himself has chimed in with the claim that the economy created 80 million jobs," Ramesh said in a statement.

The truth is that the alleged growth in employment figures doesn't square up to the grim realities of the Modi era economy, where private investment has been weak and consumption growth sluggish, he said.

"The government has done some artful statistical jugglery to claim job-creation, by adopting a very expansive definition of employment, without paying attention to the quality and circumstances of employment: A large part of the claimed 'employment growth' is just recording unpaid household work done by women as 'employment'," Ramesh claimed.

"Amidst the poor economic climate, the share of salaried, formal employment in the labour market has decreased. Workers are moving to low-productivity informal and agricultural jobs – this is an economic tragedy," the Congress leader said.

However, since the '80 million new jobs' headline elides discussion on the quality of jobs, the government touts the 'creation' of these low-productivity, poorly paid jobs as an achievement, he said.

"This deception is also why the RBI's 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," Ramesh said.

Thus, factory workers, teachers, miners, etc. who returned home during the pandemic and had to fall back upon farming in their family’s fields or as tenants for a richer farmer registered as a "job created" in agriculture, he argued.

"This travesty is the non-biological Prime Minister’s economic legacy," Ramesh said.

He said the forthcoming Budget will also undoubtedly make use of the RBI data to paint a rosy picture of the economy.

"The reality on the jobs front, however, is extremely grim – both because of mass unemployment and an abundance of low-quality employment. This dual tragedy will certainly get overlooked in the Budget speech next Tuesday," Ramesh said.

His remarks come after Prime Minister Modi on Saturday emphasised that creation of eight crore new jobs in the last three to four years has "silenced" those spreading fake narratives about unemployment.

Quoting a recent report of the Reserve Bank of India on the employment figure, the prime minister had asserted the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government continues to prioritise stability and growth and added that small and big investors have welcomed the NDA's third term with enthusiasm.

During the event launching projects costing Rs 29,000 crore in road, railway, and port sectors, Modi took a swipe at opposition parties for "spreading misinformation" on job creation, labelling them as hindrances to progress.