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Unemployment declines by half in Kerala: study

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala appears to be on a path of wriggling out of its major curse — lack of employment avenues for educated youth. A study by experts at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) here reveals that unemployment in the State has declined by half in the last four years.

According to the study conducted by K.C. Zacharia and S. Irudaya Rajan, unemployment in the State has declined from 19.1 per cent in 2003 to 9.4 per cent in 2007. The number of unemployed persons declined by 124,000 in this period, they told The Hindu here.

Similarly, the number employed persons in the State increased by 560,000 in the period. The increase in employments has been confined to the private sector. The employment avenue in the sector doubled by this period while there was a 24 per cent increase in the self-employment front.

The study revealed that international migration registered a slight increase from 18.4 lakh in 2003 to 19.4 lakh in 2007. But the emigration rate and return emigration rates have declined. The proportion of Kerala households having a Non-Resident Keralite (NoRK) in them has remained exactly at the same level in both 2003 and 2007 and the figure is 25.8 per cent. There is also a decline in the number of Keralites migrating to other States within the country in this period.

According to the study, there was only a modest but consistent acceleration in the remittances received by Kerala during the last four years. State received Rs.24,500 crore by way of external remittance in 2006-’07. This forms 20 per cent of Kerala’s Net State Domestic Product (NSDP). Remittances have not kept pace with the growth of NSDP—in 2003 remittances were 22 per cent of the GDP while it was about 25 cent earlier.

Asked about the implications of the findings of the study, Prof. Zacharia and Dr. Rajan said migration from Kerala appeared to be entering a mature phase. There is no more a mad rush of migrants from the State. Also there seems to be a growing trend in the remittances being used for investment in employment-generating avenues, instead of the earlier practice of dumping all the money in the housing sector. Demographic transition manifested by the decline of the proportion of the people in the age group of 15-24 years could be one of the reasons for the decline in the out-migration rate from the State.

“During the first 50 years of the last century, Kerala was an in-migrating State. During the past 50 years Kerala has been a major-out-migrating State. During the first 50 years of the 21st century Kerala is likely to return to the status of an in-migrating State; Gulf migration is not as widespread as is often depicted in the media,” the experts said.

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