Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, in a speech addressing the UP Investors Summit in Lucknow on June 3, claimed that since the Bharatiya Janata Party government came into power in the state in 2017, the unemployment rate had fallen from 18% to 2.9%.
He attributed the drop to the implementation of the Industrial Investment and Employment Promotion Policy. While claiming that the UP government provided jobs to lakhs of youngsters, Adityanath said, “Aaj Uttar Pradesh mein, jo unemployment rate hai vo 18% se ghatkar 2.9% reh gai hai [In Uttar Pradesh, the unemployment rate has reduced from 18% earlier to 2.9% now].”
Fact check
The unemployment rate never crossed double digits in 2017, according to data published by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy, an independent think tank that publishes monthly and quarterly data bulletins on employment in India.
While the unemployment rate in the state did touch 18% under the Akhilesh Yadav government, it was in June 2016, nine months before the Yogi government came into power. The rate quickly recovered and reduced to 2.4% in March 2017 when Adityanath was sworn in as CM.
In fact, during the pandemic and when the country was under lockdown, the state’s unemployment rate rose to its recent highest of 21.5% in April 2020.
About the unemployment rate now, Adityanath seems to be referring to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy data from April 2022, which pegged the rate at 2.9%. It then subsequently rose to 3.1% in May.
So, the rate was 2.4% when Adityanath became CM and now in May 2022, it is 3.1%, which is in fact a rise of 29%. This proves Adityanath’s claim false.
The National Statistical Office launched a Periodic Labour Force Survey in April 2017. The latest quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey was released for last year’s last quarter (October 2021-December 2021). In this report, which computes the rate for urban areas only, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above was 9.4%.
According to the annual Periodic Labour Force Survey reports, the unemployment rate in the state has been dropping from 6.2% in 2017-’18 to 5.7% in 2018-’19 to 4.4% in 2019-’20.
FactChecker tried contacting the UP CM’s office for comment via call and email but had not gotten a response by the time this article was published. If and when we hear from him, it will be updated here.
This article first appeared on FactChecker.in, a publication of the data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit IndiaSpend.
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