Data on employment in public and private sectors shows that the number of people employed in the organised public and private sectors amounted to 28.25 million as on end-March 1997. Over 1990-91 to 1996-97, employment in the public sector increased 0.5 million to 19.56 million, while 0.91 million jobs were created in the private sector over the same period. Total job creation in the organised sector in the post-liberalisation period was therefore 1.41 million.

Now compare the seven-year period prior to economic liberalisation. During 1983-84 to 1989-90, 1.55 million jobs were created in the public sector, while 0.22 million additional people found jobs in the private sector. Total job creation in the organised sector was therefore 1.77 million over the period.

Clearly, fewer jobs have been created over the seven-year period after liberalisation, in comparison with the preceding seven-year period. One reason is the lower intake of the public sector in keeping with the new economic policy, and the effect of this has been partially offset by the growth in jobs in the private sector. But even then, the overall increase in employment has been lower.

The conclusion seems to be that either we are having what is known as "jobless growth", or the bulk of the employment has been in the unorganised sector, which does not show up in the data. The probability is that the latter is true, because while the number of unemployed on the live register has increased post-liberalisation by 2.84 million from 36.30 in 1990-91 to 39.14 in 1996-97, this increase is much less that the 11.08 million increase during the period 1983-84 to 1989-90.

It is also possible that, with the shift away from public-sector employment, getting registered with the employment exchange has little meaning. But the data seems to show that getting a secure well-paying job is becoming an increasingly difficult task for young people.