Kathmandu, February 27

Contrary to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) which show that there are 908,000 unemployed people in the country, 1,333,544 people have registered themselves as unemployed in the Prime Minister Employment Programme.

The data revealed by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) was collected from the local bodies by the Employment Service Centres (ESCs) set up by the government.

On March 10 last year, PMEP under MoLESS, had sought applications from those interested to participate in the programme.

After the notice, job aspirants had filled up the form at ESCs for job placements.

As per the data, Karnali Province has the highest unemployed of 267,196 and Gandaki Province has the lowest unemployed of 79,814. Province 2 has the second highest unemployment figures with 254,176 people registering themselves at the ESC, followed by Sudur Paschim with 246,098, Province 5 with 192,875, Bagmati with 181,322 and Province 1 with 112,063 unemployed people.

Meanwhile, among the local governments, Lishankhupakhar Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchowk district has the lowest figure with 33 unemployed people. It is followed by Chame Rural Municipality of Manang with 42, Aurahi Rural Municipality of Siraha with 140, Udayapur Gadhi Rural Municipality of Udayapur with 366, Naraha Rural Municipality of Siraha with 240 and Karjanha Rural Municipality of Siraha with 300 unemployed people.

Ramchandra Dhakal, joint secretary at MoLESS and head of PMEP, said the data was verified by the ESC. However, he informed that the ministry is cross-verifying figures before it can be finalised. “We expect to cross-verify the data by April.”

Dhakal further said the government has plans to employ about 60,000 unemployed people in the ongoing fiscal year and provide them with work for at least 100 days for which the ministry has recently allocated Rs two billion.

Of the more than 1.33 million registered as unemployed, the ministry has been able to cross-verify data of 94,565 people as of today. Of them, 46,692 are male, 46,628 are female and 15 have been identified are ‘others’, meaning they are third gender.

Interestingly, on April 26 last year, the CBS had revealed that 908,000 working age people or 11.4 per cent of the total population were unemployed in the country.

As per Nepal Labour Force Survey conducted by CBS in fiscal 2017-18, of the total number of jobless people, 511,000 were male while 397,000 were female. As per the report, the number of unemployed people stood at 640,000 in urban areas and 268,000 in rural areas.

There were approximately 20.7 million people of the working age and approximately 7.1 million were employed, as per CBS. According to the report, 4.4 million employed people were male while 2.6 million were female.

Based on the data, the highest employment rate was in Bagmati Province while the lowest was in Sudur Paschim Province. While 43.8 per cent population was employed in Bagmati Province, only 24.1 per cent population was employed in Sudur Paschim Province.

Likewise, the highest rate of unemployment was in Province 2 with 20.1 per cent people unemployed.