Only Unskilled People Lost Jobs After Demonetisation, says Ravi Shankar Prasad
Hitting back at the critics, IT minister said that only employees who did not up-skill themselves according to the industry demands lost their jobs, as reported by TOI. There have been reports that close to 15 lakh people lost their jobs in the post- demonetisation quarter.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union IT minister said, "There's a difference between job and employment. Only those who were not able to enhance their skills with time lost their jobs."
According to CMIE data, the estimated total employment during January-April 2017 was 405 million compared to 406.5 million during the preceding four months, September-December 2016.
The minister however believed demonetisation has created jobs saying, "Under the Mudra scheme, we gave loans worth Rs 4 lakh crore to 8 crore people. There were small traders, handcart pullers and people from ST, SC and minorities. If each of them employed at least one person, 4 crore jobs were created automatically."
Jobs have been on the radar for 2017, with majority of sectors decreasing their hiring prospects. Companies have reduced their jobs, and even skill development mission has only been able to provide employment to half of the people gone through training.
More than 100 companies, apart from the IT and financial services sector reported a net decline in their employee number for the second consecutive year.
NASSCOM data reports 6 lakh jobs were created post- demonetisation and believes IT industry will add 1.5 lakh IT jobs in this financial year.
