Urban Unemployment A Major Concern for State, Says Economic Survey

HYDERABAD: Unemployment is one of the major concerns at the present juncture, especially in urban areas of the state, according to the ‘Socio Economic Outlook 2016: Reinventing Telangana, the Way Forward’, which was tabled in the State Assembly on Monday.

According the survey, the unemployment rate under the usual principal and subsidiary status (UPSS) among the age group of 15 years and above is 2.7 per cent. In rural areas, the unemployment rate is 1.1 percent whereas in urban areas it is 6.6 per cent, indicating that unemployment in urban areas is much higher than in rural areas.

It is also noteworthy that in the age group 15-29 years, unemployment rate is estimated to be 7.7 percent under the UPSS at state level, 3.8 per cent in rural areas and 17.2 per cent in urban areas. This indicates that youth unemployment is one of the major concerns at the present juncture, especially in urban areas.

JOB PATTERN

On the employment patterns, the survey said that along with the structural changes in the economy, a corresponding change was observed in the employment pattern too. Over a period of time, there has been a shift in employment from primary to the secondary and to the tertiary sectors, both in terms of output and employment. However, the shift in employment is not as rapid as the changes observed in sectoral output.

The share of agriculture in total GSDP has been declining steeply compared to decline in employment in the agricultural sector. At the 2011-12 prices, the share of agriculture and allied activities in total gross value added (GVA) was 12.9 per cent, whereas about 55.6 percent of total workforce is dependant on it. Further, the share of services sector in total GVA is 60.5 per cent but it is providing employment to only 26.6 per cent workforce. Industry is contributing about 26.7 per cent to GVA while 17.8 per cent of total workforce is dependent on this sector for employment. Though, urban areas have seen a greater diversification in terms of employment over a period of time, a majority of rural areas still depend heavily on agriculture.

LITERACY & GENDER: Another alarming factor is that the gender gap in literacy rates in the state. “At the state level, the female literacy rate was only 57.9 per cent as against 75 per cent among males in 2011, indicating a gap of 17.1 percentage points. Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Adilabad, Nizamabad and Medak have shown a higher gender disparity of 20 percentage points. The gender gap in literacy was more in rural areas at 20.4 points than in urban areas at 11 points at the state level. The gender gap in rural literacy was the lowest in Khammam at 15.8 percentage points and the gender gap in urban literacy was the lowest in Hyderabad at 7.7 percentage points.

Districts with low literacy rates such as Mahbubnagar, Medak and Nizamabad had a higher gender gap. Thus, the overall literacy rate can be improved by improving female literacy, the survey suggested.

The gender gap among SCs was 18.1 and among STs it was 20.1 percentage points at the state level in 2011 as against 17.1 percentage points among all caste groups. The gender gap in literacy did not vary much across the caste groups in the state. The same pattern can be observed across the districts except in Hyderabad and Rangareddy where the gender gap among all caste groups was lower than that of SCs and STs.

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