PANJIM: Several provisions in the Employment Exchange Act and the system are not allowing the Labour and Employment Department to get a real-time picture of the employment figures in the State.
The deficiency came to the fore after the unemployment figures revealed by the NITI Aayog and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant saw a huge disparity.
The NITI Aayog has relied upon the Employment Exchange live register, which suggests 1.10 lakh, persons, as unemployed in the State. However, the CM was quick in disputing this statistic claiming that in reality only 20,000 youth in Goa are unemployed.
The Labour and Employment Department has an explanation. As far as the Employment Exchange is concerned it is governed by the Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959.
Labour Commissioner Raju Gawas has informed that there are many restrictions on the inclusion and exclusion of applicants into the Employment Exchange live register.
“The figure of unemployment may be inflated due to various reasons. Firstly, the Act allows any person to register after completion of age 15 and also 15 years domicile in the State, though it is not an employable age,” Gawas said.
He said that the Employment Exchange does not have the mandate to cancel the registration of any registered persons.
“The maximum employable age is 42; however, many who have surpassed the age still remain in the register as they do not cancel their registration,” he said.
Since the applicants only consider government jobs as employment, the ones who are working in private firms do not cancel their registration or mention it as private employment to enable them to continue their quest for government service.
To add to that there are several registered persons who have secured government jobs on lesser qualifications but haven’t cancelled their registration to enable them to find a job matching their higher qualifications.
“Above all employment registration is a compulsory document to apply for government jobs which are prompting thousands of aspirants, if not lakhs, to first get themselves on the Employment Exchange list immediately after they complete the minimum age for registration,” the Labour Commissioner said.
These and many factors according to the department are amounting to the inflated figure.
It is indeed a fact that the total registered persons today stand at 1.40 lakh of which just above 19,000 are shown as employed and rest according to the records remain unemployed.
The Chief Minister had disputed 1.10 lakh unemployment figures that were put out by the NITI Aayog and counterclaimed that it is actually 20,000. He has now asked the labour department to add a separate column for private employment which needs to be revealed while registering with the Employment Exchange.
Expressing his surprise that several who had secured government jobs had not cancelled their registration, Sawant has now asked for an upgradation of the system so that the government gets the actual figures.
