Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been harping on ‘Acche Din ‘. But on the ground the reality is just opposite. According to the National Sample Survey Office’s periodic labour force survey, the country’s unemployment rate stood at a 45-year-high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18, . Business Standard reported.

According to the report, the unemployment rate was at its highest level since 1972-73. Two independent members of the National Statistical Commission had resigned this week after the government allegedly failed to publish the report that was prepared last month. The report is still not public.

The report reveals in 2011-12, the unemployment rate stood at 2.2 per cent and youth unemployment is at “astronomically high” levels of 13 to 27 per cent.

This is the first survey on employment by a government agency after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in November 2016.

The Periodic Labour Force Survey is the first annual household survey of the National Sample Survey Office and data was collected between July 2017 and June 2018.

Documents reviewed by the Business Standard showed that unemployment rate was at its highest since the 1972-73 period, from when the employment data is comparable. In comparison, the unemployment rate stood at 2.2% in 2011-12, during the United Progressive Alliance’s second term, according to the survey.

The report showed that the unemployment rate among the youth was at a higher level compared to previous years and “much higher compared to that in the overall population”.

The rate of unemployment among men in rural areas between the ages of 15 and 29 years jumped to 17.4 percent in 2017-18 compared to 5 percent in 2011-12. The unemployment rate among women in rural areas stood at 13.6 percent in 2017-18 compared to 4.8 percent in 2011-12, according to the survey.

Unemployment among youth in urban areas was higher than in rural areas – 18.7 percent for men and 27.2 percent for women in 2017-18.

Meanwhile , Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his tweets had mocked the National Statistical Commission . ON The NSC resignations he tweeted

One more venerable institution died on 29 January 2019 owing to malicious negligence by the government. — P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) January 30, 2019

We mourn the death of the National Statistical Commission and remember with gratitude its valiant fight to release untainted GDP data and employment data.