New Delhi: An unreleased Labour Bureau report shows that India’s unemployment rate hit a four-year high of 3.9% in 2016-17, the same year that the Narendra Modi government chose to demonetise high-value currency notes.

The higher unemployment rate – which is defined as the proportion of the country’s labour force that is available for work but could not get a job – coincided with an increase in the labour participation force rate, according to story published in Business Standard on Friday morning.

According to the government’s findings, the unemployment rate stood at 3.9% in 2016-17, compared to 3.7% in 2015-16 and 3.4% in 2013-14.

The survey's results have been apparently approved by labour and employment minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar but not made public yet.

Also read: Upset Over Job Data Picture, BJP MPs Block M.M. Joshi-Led Panel Report on GDP Growth

In 2012-13, the penultimate year of the UPA-II government, the unemployment rate was 4.0%.

According to Business Standard, this was the “last annual survey of households on jobs conducted by the labour bureau”. While this survey has been signed off by Gangwar, it has not been published nor was it furnished during Parliament session when questions were raised about the country's employment situation.  

As The Wire has reported, the labour bureau's own surveys are being replaced by the National Sample Survey Office’s periodic labour force survey which will cover 2017-18. These new surveys are also yet to be released. 

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