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Unemployment is the single biggest headache confronting the policymakers of the country. It is detrimental on both dimensions – humanitarian and economic. High employment rates contribute to all-round happiness in the economy apart from the obvious beneficiaries, those who get jobs. Governments earn revenues not only by taxing the income but also from indirect taxes on the goods and services they consume as well as from the companies that employ the workers. Taxes help in building more infrastructure that pave the way for more private investment and more employment. Buoyant taxes also help a government to design welfare schemes for the vulnerable sections that should itself shrink in size as employment levels rise.

A National Employment Policy can, therefore, go a long way in addressing the unemployment problem. According to reports, the government is setting up an expert committee to draw up the country’s first employment policy, which is itself an admission of the grave nature of the malaise. It is incumbent upon the government to ensure that the committee should be as widely representative of the stakeholders as possible.

The committee should act on unfiltered unemployment data obtained from different primary source. The significance of raw data on formulating such a policy is immense. Moreover collection of employment data from all over the country should be stepped up and the sanctity of data should be maintained at all costs. Else, the purpose of the exercise can be compromised.

The policy should also focus on sectors that are aligned it with the nation’s competitive advantages. The global economy, supply lines and linkages are changing and if sectors can be aligned on these lines for employment generation it would contribute to the rise of the country as a powerhouse along those lines. The policy must also dwell on reviving the sectors that have potential for generating jobs but are currently operating below optimal levels.

Any employment policy has to be drafted in conjunction with the private sector that needs to improve capital expenditure as the economy staggers out of the Covid-induced paralysis. The unorganised sector employs an overwhelming — well over 80 percent — of the nation’s labour force. While the challenge is gargantuan, the possibilities, too, are immense. The nation will wait impatiently for the policy.