Christians have the highest Unemployment Rate both in Urban & Rural areas

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) released the results of the employment and unemployment survey conducted in 68th round during July 2011 to June 2012. Christians had the highest unemployment rate in both rural & urban areas. Almost half the Muslim households were self employed in urban areas. Hindus had the lowest unemployment rate of 3.3% in urban areas.

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) released the results of the employment and unemployment survey conducted in 68^th round during July 2011 to June 2012. The survey was carried out in more than 1 lakh households and covered more than 4.5 lakh persons. According to the results of this survey, Christians have the highest unemployment in both Rural & Urban areas.

Half the Rural Households are Self Employed

As expected, almost half the households in rural areas were self employed either in agriculture or non-agriculture. A majority of them were self employed in agriculture. While about 9% of Hindu & Muslim households were salaried, 16% of Christian households were salaried in rural areas. A little more than 1/3^rd of the rural households were employed as casual labour. While the percentage of households employed as casual labour was more or less equal for Hindus & Muslims, a lesser percentage of Christians were employed as casual labour. The employment trend in both Hindu & Muslim households was more or less similar in rural areas. However, there was considerable difference in the salaried class of Christians & Sikhs compared to Hindus & Muslims.

Almost half the Muslim households are Self Employed in Urban Areas

While the employment trend of both Hindus & Muslims was more or less similar in rural areas, the trend in urban areas was completely different. Only 1/3^rd of the Hindu households were self employed in urban areas while half of the Muslim households were self employed. The percentage of self employed households was least for Christians. The greatest percentage of salaries households were Christian with 45.8%. Hindu households were a close second in the salaried class with 43.9%. On the other hand, only 27.7% of the Muslim households were salaried. 15% of the urban Muslim households were employed as casual labour while only 4.1% of Sikh households were employed as casual labour. While there was some sense of uniformity in employment trend in the rural areas, there were vast differences in the urban areas.

The Unemployment rate of Muslims & Christians on the rise

The unemployment rate for Hindus was more or less constant at 1.5% from 2004-05 to 2011-12. The corresponding rate for the other groups varied greatly from 2004-05 to 2011-12. Christians had the highest unemployment rate of 4.5% in 2011-12 and Sikhs had the lowest unemployment rate of 1.3%. Sikhs were the only religious group whose unemployment rate decreased consistently from 2004-05 to 2011-12. For both Muslims & Christians, the rate went down from 2004-05 to 2009-10, but again increased in 2011-12.

The trend in unemployment rate was very different in the urban areas. While Christians still had the highest unemployment rate of 5.9% in 2011-12, it was lowest for Hindus at 3.3%. Hindus were the only religious group in the urban areas whose unemployment rate consistently went down from 2004-05 to 2011-12. The unemployment rate of Christians almost doubled from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

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