46.7 million new jobs created in FY24, total jobs up by 6 percent: RBI

MUMBAI: There’s something to cheer for the government in the latest employment data from the RBI, which contradicts the private sector data on jobs and the suggestions that poor job conditions were to blame for the not-so-impressive electoral numbers for the BJP in the just-concluded polls. According to the provisional data released by the central bank, the country added 46.7 million new jobs in FY24, taking the total to 643.3 million, up 6 percent from 596.7 million in FY23.

This is much more than the numbers dished out by private surveys like that of the CMIE. That the economy was having jobless growth has been the recurring theme of many analysts and opposition politicians.

“Provisionally, employment generation grew 6 percent or 46.7 million new jobs in FY24 as against 3.2 percent addition in FY23,” the Reserve Bank data on ‘measuring industry level productivity and employment’ showed Monday. The data on productivity and employment levels is an extrapolation of the government’s own National Accounts and the numbers from the Union labour ministry.