Context
The performance of any government can be significantly impacted by the vital issue of unemployment. Understanding how unemployment is defined and assessed is essential for finding effective solutions, especially in emerging nations like India.

What is Unemployment?  
·         Joblessness is not the same as being unemployed. Unemployment is defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as being out of work, available for employment, and actively looking for work. It includes three essential standards:
Out of a Job: The person must not have a job in a traditional sense.
Available for Work: They must be prepared and willing to accept employment.
Actively seeking a job: Additional characteristics of unemployment include active efforts to look for new employment possibilities.
·         This definition does not include people who have lost their jobs but are not actively looking for new employment.

Measuring Unemployment in India  
·         Comparing the U.S. and Indian contexts: While both countries record unemployment rates, there are substantial differences between their economic systems and practises. The methodologies used to measure unemployment are different in the U.S. and India since the former has a larger informal sector.
·         Social conventions may prevent individuals in developing nations like India from choosing to look for work, making it more difficult to evaluate unemployment. According to a poll conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2009–10, a sizable percentage of women who are employed as housewives reported a wish to work if possibilities were present in their houses. However, because they are not actively looking for work, these ladies are not regarded as being unemployed. This demonstrates the shortcomings of a definition that emphasises active job hunting in describing the actual state of unemployment in developing nations.
·         In India, people frequently engage in a variety of economic activities throughout the year and informal employment is also common. This flexibility makes measuring unemployment difficult. 

Measurement Frameworks in India  
·         Usual Principal and Subsidiary Status (UPSS) and Current Weekly Status (CWS) are the two principal metrics used in India to categorise people's working statuses.
·         Usual principle and Subsidiary Status (UPSS): Based on a person's main source of income throughout the previous year, we can identify their principle employment status. However, if a person with a subsidiary position engages in economic activity for at least 30 days, they may still be considered to be employed.
·         Example: According to UPSS, a person who was jobless for five months but worked seven months as a casual labourer the year before is regarded to be employed.
·         Current Weekly Status (CWS): CWS uses a condensed reference period and concentrates on a person's employment status over the previous week. 
·         For illustration, if a person worked for at least an hour on at least one day during the seven days before to the survey, they are deemed to be employed for the purposes of the CWS.
·         Another way to assess unemployment is current daily status unemployment, but it is rarely used in India.
·         Other metrics, such as the PLFS (periodic labour force survey), LFPR (labour force participation rate), and WPR (worker population ratio), are also used to quantify unemployment.

Impact of a Lockdown  
·         The COVID-19 lockdown in India created a special obstacle for measuring unemployment. Although the impacts of the lockdown on the economy were not immediately seen in the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) unemployment statistics, they were observed in later surveys. 
·         Further complicating the calculation is the possibility that people who lost their jobs during the shutdown may not be counted as unemployed if they find work within six months.

Causes of Unemployment  
The following are some of the main reasons for unemployment in India:
·         Large population.
·         Low levels of education or a lack of vocational skills among the working population.
·         Industries with high labour costs seeing a downturn in private investment, especially following demonetization
·         Transitioning between the three sectors is challenging due to the poor productivity in the agricultural sector and the dearth of alternatives for agricultural employees.
·         Such enterprises are unviable with cost and compliance overruns due to legal complications, inadequate state support, and insufficient infrastructural, financial, and market links to small businesses.
·         Low manufacturing sector investments and inadequate infrastructural growth limit secondary sector job opportunities.
·         Due to a lack of necessary training or education, the vast majority of the nation's workforce works in the unorganised sector, and employment statistics do not account for this information.
·         The education offered in schools and colleges is not in line with the needs of the industries today, which is the biggest contributor to structural unemployment.
·         Social conventions that are backwards that prevent women from starting or keeping jobs.
 
Way Forward 
·         Promoting Labor-Intensive Industries: To increase job growth in labour-intensive industries including food processing, leather and footwear production, wood manufacturing, textiles, and apparel, certain policy measures are required.
·         Decentralisation of Industries: Promoting the spread of economic activity across regions is essential to creating jobs everywhere. Additionally, this strategy helps ease the stresses of rural-to-urban migration.
·         Entrepreneurship Promotion: Promoting entrepreneurship is essential since it helps create jobs, especially among young people.
·         Women's Labour Force involvement: It is crucial to have policies in place to remove societal barriers and guarantee women's entry and ongoing involvement in the labour force.
·         Development of a Skilled Workforce: It is crucial to monitor and improve the educational system in order to create a skilled labour force.
·         Effective Programme Implementation: It is critical for job creation to ensure the successful implementation of current programmes like Make in India, Skill India, Start-up, and Stand-Up India.

Conclusion  
In political and economic situations, unemployment is a crucial element, especially in developing economies like India. In order to make successful policy decisions and address the problems the labour force faces, it is crucial to comprehend the complexity of unemployment measurement.

LTX Mains Question
Q. What are the two main methods used to categorise people's working statuses in India, and how do the country's high rates of informal employment complicate efforts to measure unemployment?