<p class="bodytext">India's unemployment rate during July 2018-June 2019 period declined to 5.8% from 6.1% during a year-earlier period, a government report released on Thursday said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Joblessness among the youth - those aged between 15-29 years and who account for roughly over a third of India's 1.3 billion people - marginally declined to 17.3% in 2018/19 from 17.8% from a year ago, the report said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced a political controversy last year when ahead of national elections, the first extensive annual report for the July 2017-June 2018 period was leaked and published in the Business Standard newspaper. It showed the unemployment rate was the highest in at least 45 years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Modi’s government officially released the report later.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The latest annual report is based on the periodic labour force survey conducted by the National Statistics Office covering over 100,000 households in rural and urban areas.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Private economists and industry leaders say India's unemployment rate has substantially gone up after the over two-month long lockdown imposed in late March to combat the coronavirus pandemic.</p>.<p class="bodytext">India's unemployment rate in May rose to 23.48%, marginally lower than 23.52% in April, according to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on Monday, reflecting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.</p>.<p class="bodytext">India has reported nearly 217,000 coronavirus cases, with 6,075 deaths. Asia's third largest economy grew at a pace of 3.1% in the January-March quarter, its slowest pace in at least eight years, and economists have predicted a contraction of up to 5% in the fiscal year that began in April, posing a risk of job cuts.</p>
<p class="bodytext">India's unemployment rate during July 2018-June 2019 period declined to 5.8% from 6.1% during a year-earlier period, a government report released on Thursday said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Joblessness among the youth - those aged between 15-29 years and who account for roughly over a third of India's 1.3 billion people - marginally declined to 17.3% in 2018/19 from 17.8% from a year ago, the report said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced a political controversy last year when ahead of national elections, the first extensive annual report for the July 2017-June 2018 period was leaked and published in the Business Standard newspaper. It showed the unemployment rate was the highest in at least 45 years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Modi’s government officially released the report later.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The latest annual report is based on the periodic labour force survey conducted by the National Statistics Office covering over 100,000 households in rural and urban areas.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Private economists and industry leaders say India's unemployment rate has substantially gone up after the over two-month long lockdown imposed in late March to combat the coronavirus pandemic.</p>.<p class="bodytext">India's unemployment rate in May rose to 23.48%, marginally lower than 23.52% in April, according to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on Monday, reflecting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.</p>.<p class="bodytext">India has reported nearly 217,000 coronavirus cases, with 6,075 deaths. Asia's third largest economy grew at a pace of 3.1% in the January-March quarter, its slowest pace in at least eight years, and economists have predicted a contraction of up to 5% in the fiscal year that began in April, posing a risk of job cuts.</p>