While Gujarat comes on top in terms of providing placement through exchanges, it isn’t the top state when it comes to the number of job-seekers. (Representational Image) While Gujarat comes on top in terms of providing placement through exchanges, it isn’t the top state when it comes to the number of job-seekers. (Representational Image)

With the exception of Gujarat, where employment exchanges have consistently clocked an over 30 per cent success rate at providing placement to job seekers, the national average of placement across exchanges stood at 0.57 per cent — or just 3 persons employed per 500 who applied in 2015. No state other than Goa has been able to cross the 1 per cent mark (number of placements managed against the total number of those who applied) even as the number of job seekers witnessed a sharp rise in the first nine months of 2015, an increasing trend that’s consistently visible through the last four years.

All exchanges are linked to the National Career Service (NCS) portal which has identified over 3,000 occupations under 53 sectors in both government and private sector. A total of 14.85 lakh employers have been registered with the NCS portal. The portal also facilitates organisation of job fairs where both employers and job-seekers can interact. Most of the placements through the exchanges are in the private sector, according to the Labour Ministry’s annual report.

The data compiled by the Ministry of Labour and Employment is available from 2012 and updated till September 2015.

While Gujarat comes on top in terms of providing placement through exchanges, it isn’t the top state when it comes to the number of job-seekers. That’s Tamil Nadu with more than 80 lakh registrations with employment exchanges in first nine months of 2015, as against Gujarat which had only 6.88 lakh registrations.

Tamil Nadu was followed by West Bengal, UP, Kerala and Maharashtra, when states are stacked in terms the number of applicants. These five states accounted for 60 per cent (2.71 crore) registrations with the employment exchanges in 2015. However, these five states only accounted for 27,600 placements, which is only 0.1 per cent of the total registrations.

Data shows that the number of job-seekers across the country has been on a rise. While registrations with exchanges across the country stood at 4.47 crore in 2012 and 4.82 crore in 2014, the number of registrations at employment exchanges in the first nine months of 2015 stood at 4.48 crore. If the nine months’ figures for 2015 are annualised, the numbers would rise to 5.98 crore for the full year.

Data also shows the grim situation of job creation in the country as placements are not keeping pace with rise in number of job seekers and there has been a decline in the placements in percentage terms. If the placement percentage (out of the total job seekers across the country) stood at 0.95 per cent in 2012, it fell to 0.74 per cent and 0.7 per cent in 2013 and 2014 respectively. For the first nine months of 2015 the placement percentage dropped to 0.57 per cent.

The employment exchanges in Gujarat continued to be exceptional performers and they accounted for 83.3 per cent or 2.11 lakh placements out of the total 2.53 lakh placements from exchanges across the country in the first nine months of 2015. In absolute terms, Maharashtra comes second with 13,400 placements in 2015.

NCS which was earlier known as National Employment Service, has been put on a mission mode project to provide services like registration of job-seekers and employers, job matching, career counseling and vocational guidance. The NCS project was enhanced in 2016-17 to include a component for providing part funds for improving the infrastructure in employment exchanges and for organising job fairs.

As per latest data, a total of 997 employment exchanges have been functioning across states and Union Territories in the country. Uttar Pradesh topped the list of states with 99 employment exchanges, followed by Kerala (89 employment exchanges), West Bengal (77), Haryana (59), Assam (52), Madhya Pradesh (49), Gujarat (48) Punjab (47), Chhattisgarh (47) and Maharashtra (47). Smaller state Goa and UTs Andaman & Nicobar, Dadar & Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Puducherry has one employment exchange each. Sikkim is the only state not having any employment exchange.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Business News, download Indian Express App.