Government to release unemployment data every month starting May 15: Official

MUMBAI: The government will start releasing the unemployment data on monthly basis beginning May 15, as against quarterly, a senior official said on Monday. The data to be released on May 15 will include figures for January, February and March, and thereafter it will be released every month, the official told reporters here.

"For the first three months, we will be releasing the data on May 15. This is the first time that we are doing it," the official from Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said.

India doesn't have a system of high frequency data collection and disclosure on unemployment, unlike other major economies. Till now, the government had been providing data on urban unemployment on a quarterly basis, and combined rural and urban unemployment data on an annual basis.

The official explained that the data collection is statistically robust and representative, and internal consistency checks are being carried out for the same. The government will meet its guidance and come out with the private capital expenditure data by April-end, the official said.

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Periodic labour force survey

From next year onwards, it will also be releasing findings of a survey of service sector enterprises, the official said. The government is also working to bring out data on the informal sector captured in the annual survey of the unincorporated sector, on a quarterly basis, the official said.

An official said that the government has also decided to launch periodic labour force survey for rural areas on a quarterly basis. Data is the new oil, and there is a need for the same to be credible and timely, the official said, asserting that Indian data is considered to be robust, credible and transparent globally.