Shillong, Aug 27: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Tuesday informed that the unemployment rates in Meghalaya has decreased over the seven-year period from 2017 to 2024, with unemployment rate at a high of 8.8% in 2017-2018 and reaching a low of 1.9% in 2021-22. He was referring to the database of the Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy.

Replying to a special motion moved by UDP legislator Lahkmen Rymbui in the Assembly, Tynsong said that the average unemployment rate for Meghalaya is 3.9%, while for India it is substantially higher at 7%. Also, the PLFS data for Meghalaya indicates stability with an average unemployment rate of 2.92% as compared to overall national average rate at 4.7%, during the same period.

“Meghalaya’s unemployment rate is consistently lower than the national average, among both data sources. The data indicates that Meghalaya’s labour market has been more resilient and possibly more dynamic in creating and sustaining employment opportunities compared to the national scenario,” he said.

Highlighting the various measures taken by the government to address the problem of unemployment, Tynsong said the government aims to generate an additional 5 lakh employment opportunities by 2028.

2.3 lakh of these opportunities are going to come from agriculture and allied activities alone. Followed by trade, hotels and transportation, which are expected to create 1.5 lakh opportunities. Constriction and manufacturing will account for 53,000 and 23,000 employment opportunities, respectively. Mining and electricity will together create 7,500 employment opportunities while real estate will employ 2,500 people.

He informed that till date, the government has invested Rs 7 crore in Skills Meghalaya programme, while the annual direct income generated by the beneficiaries is expected to be approximately Rs 37 crores annually. This amount represents a significant return on the government’s Rs 7 crore investment.

The government has earmarked an amount of more than Rs 53 crore as training costs and Rs 31 crores for start-up tools to train another 26000 beneficiaries during 2024-25, he added.

Further, Tynsong said that the government has been putting all efforts strategically, for creation of job opportunities in the state and to address the unemployment problem.

“We would like to assure you that our government is working systematically to build a better and greater Meghalaya and we need the participation and support of every citizen in this endeavour,” he said.

Stating that the government of Meghalaya is itself a major job creator in the state, the deputy CM said according to the 2022 census on government employees, the total number of employees under the Meghalaya government as of March 31, 2022 is 60,836.

He informed that the government has introduced SOPs for timely intimation of vacancies, advertisement of vacancies and time-bound conduct of recruitment exams. A total number of 954 candidates and 92 candidates have been recommended by the MPSC and DSC, respectively, since April 2021.

Under the central recruitment board, he said 996 vacant posts of various ranks of Meghalaya police were filled in the year 2023 and around 3000 vacancies will be filled up during 2024.

The Meghalaya Medical Recruitment Board has been able to fill up 455 vacancies including 103 specialists and about 164 posts of staff nurses and 78 ANMs will be recruited shortly, he added.

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