More and more women have been seeking jobs in the recent years. According to the Directorate General of Employment and Training (D.G.E.&T.) in the Ministry of Labour, the number of women job seekers increased from 90.3 lakh in 1997 to 106.5 lakh in 2002. Their number to the total job seekers also increased from 23.1% in 1997 to 25.9% in 2002. Educated women job seekers in the live register accounted for 57.1 lakh in 1993 which increased to 79.4 lakh in 2002.
Reflecting the trend, the percentage of educated women job seekers among the total educated job-seekers also witnessed an increase from 72.6% in 1993 to 74.6% in 2002. Their percentage to total educated job seekers accounted for 26.8% in 2002. There were 79.43 lakh educated women job seekers among total number of 296.67 lakh educated job-seekers in that year.
An analysis of the data furnished by Employment Exchanges across the country to the D.G.E.&T. however, revealed that overall placement of women effected through the Employment Exchanges has been declining over the years. It came down from 3.2% in 1994 to 1.8% in 2003. Around 26.7 thousand women job seekers were placed during 2002. Both the placement of educated women was better among them accounting for 19.8 thousand.
Among the major states, Kerala had the maximum in women job-seekers (20.8 lakh) followed by Tamil Nadu (18.5 lakh) and West Bengal (17.4 lakh) at the end of 2003. Rajasthan had the least number of women job seekers (0.9 lakh). Placement of women job seekers was maximum (6.9 thousand) in Gujarat.
A network of 945 Employment Exchanges cover all the states and Union Territories except Sikkim. Besides, registering job seekers for placement, the Employment Exchanges collect data on various aspects of employment and unemployment and send a copy of the same to D.G.E.&T. for compilation and all-India release.
(Release ID :1996)