India Officials Trek Through Villages to Map Rising Joblessness
- Data series set to reveal true extent of India’s unemployment
- Country has lacked reliable jobs data to assist policy makers
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As India’s infamous summer heat started to rise this April, hundreds of researchers began a trek through villages and cities seeking answers to one of the country’s enduring policy puzzles -- jobs. The answer could shape Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election bid in 2019.
The South Asian nation’s most ambitious jobs survey to date will reveal annual employment numbers for the whole country and quarterly estimates for its growing cities. That’s a significant change from the current system where the latest numbers are at least one-year old.