NEW DELHI: Even as the government appears to have conceded, after much denial, that the job crisis has hit both the organised and unorganised sectors, recruitment in central ministries and departments has been shrinking over the past four years. This is despite the sanctioned strength increasing across all grades of employees.
Analysis of the Ministry of Personnel and Training data shows that between 2014 and 2018, the sanctioned strength in all ministries and departments increased by 1.60 lakh — from 36.45 lakh in 2014 to 38.02 lakh in 2018. But, the actual strength went down by more than 1 lakh. The total number of filled positions in 2014 was 32.23 lakh, which decreased marginally in 2016 to 32.21 lakh and further to 31.18 lakh in 2018, creating nearly seven lakh vacancies.
According to the data, maximum employee strength is under Grade C (non-gazetted), which saw maximum gain in the sanctioned strength — from 32.07 lakh in 2014 to 33.47 lakh in 2018. In contrast, the number of officials positioned under this grade decreased went down from 28.84 lakh to 27.73 lakh in the corresponding period.
Grade (A) positions, however, witnessed a different trend as the sanctioned strength went up from 1.14 lakh to 1.23 lakh between 2014 and 2018 and officials in position also went up from 98,115 to 1.04 lakh.
Officials said filling up of vacancies in government departments is a continuous process and is done as per the need.
Data regarding government expenditure on the staff has disclosed that in 2017-18, a total of Rs 1,90,529.49 crore was spent on salary and allowances, an increase from Rs 1,24,317 crore in 2014. The Periodic Labour Force Survey data in June showed unemployment rate at a 45-year-high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18. According to the latest PLFS report, unemployment among people aged 15-29 years was recorded as the highest in the January-March 2019 quarter.