In efforts to support job creation and help frame better policies, the Government of India has set up a high-level task force to compute employment data, Economic Times reports.

Lack of timely reliable data on employment has made it difficult for policy makers to assess the need and extent of employment creation at different points in time. While some data is collected and published by the labour agencies, but the coverage is very small.

Prime Minister (PM), Narendra Modi in his recent move has directed the PMs office and concerned Ministries to come up with a solution to fill this longstanding gap in the country’s employment creation and people development structure.

The task force is created under the chairmanship of the Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog Dr. Arvind Panagriya with Labour Secretary Ms. Sathiyavathy, Secretary Statistics Dr. T.C.A. Ananth, Prof. Pulak Ghosh of NITI Aayog and Shri Manish Sabharwal (Member RBI Board) as members.

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The task force will recommend solutions that can be implemented in a time-bound manner, adding that the Prime Minister has directed this task be expedited such that policies on employment can be formulated with proper appreciation of impacts, based on credible data.

To spur employment generation, the need for credible data is emphasized by the government, such that it can formulate policies better based on timely need for industries.

As of now, the Labour agencies only create job statistics for 8 sectors which comes with a lag, while the others remain uncovered thus leading to unemployment among certain classes of the society, particularly the OBCs (Other Backward Classes). The policy makers do not have a holistic view of the employment outlook and the current scenario in the country.

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