Emerging from the shadow of the global slowdown, Indian economy has shown clear signs of revival with a likely 1.51 lakh (151,000) jobs being added in a year till September 2009, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
About 4.91 lakh (491,000) jobs were lost at the beginning of the slowdown in October-December 2008, the pre-Budget Survey tabled in Parliament said.
"On the whole, for the period October 2008 to September 2009, there may have been a net addition of 1.51 lakh jobs in the sectors covered under the said surveys," the survey said.
The survey, which cited data from studies conducted by the Labour Bureau of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, however, added a word of caution and said there is a possibility of a rise in unemployment due to the slowdown of the economy.
Though employment is estimated to have declined by 4.91 lakh during the third quarter (October-December) of 2008, it increased by 2.76 lakh (276,000) during January-March 2009, the survey said citing Labour Bureau figures.
The employment scene went on a downward spiral again in the April-June 2009 period with a decline of 1.31 lakh (131,000) jobs, before once again reverting with an increase of 4.97 lakh (497,000) during the second quarter (July- September) 2009.
"A major concern was regarding the possibility of a rise in unemployment due to the slowdown in the economy," it said.
The survey added that with a budgetary outlay of over Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) on various poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes, nearly 4.5 crore (45 million) households have availed job opportunities.
"During the year 2009-10, 4.34 crore (43.4 million) households have been provided employment under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)," the Survey for 2009-10 said.
Against the budgetary outlay of Rs 39,100 crore (391 billion) for 2009-10 for NREGS, an amount of Rs 24,758.50 crore (Rs 247.585 billion) has been released to the states and union territories till December 2009, it said.
"Out of the 182.88 crore (1.828 billion) person days created under the scheme during this period, 29 per cent and 22 per cent were in favour of Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes population respectively, and 50 per cent in favour of women," it added.
Under the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, over 36.78 lakh (3.678 million) self-help groups had been formed and 1.33 crore (13.3 million) 'swarozgaris' have been assisted with a total investment of Rs 30,896.08 crore (Rs 308.96 billion).
The government has also utilised Rs 363.12 crore (Rs 3.631 billion) till December 2009 under the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana.
A total of 28,613 urban poor have been assisted to set up individual enterprises.
The government had fixed the total budgetary outlay at over Rs 70,000 crore for all employment generation schemes during the fiscal, the Survey said.
