Employment exchanges
Topic: Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Employment: Growth, Informalisation and Other Issues"
Meaning
Employment exchanges are government offices where job-seekers register for notified vacancies. They were run under the DGE&T and are one source of data on unemployment. They record only formal vacancies, and many rural people never register. So they are a weak proxy (an indirect, rough measure) for unemployment. The National Career Service portal now does their job.
Example
A Class 12 pass-out in a district town registers at the local employment exchange hoping to be called for a government clerk's post. A farm labourer in the same district who has no work never registers. The exchange data misses them.
Don't confuse with
- PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey): a household survey by the National Statistical Office that measures employment and unemployment directly. It does not depend on who chooses to register.
Related concepts
- Labour force
- Not in labour force
- Discouraged workers
- Labour force participation rate
- Worker population ratio
- Unemployment rate
- Usual status
- Principal status
- Subsidiary status
- Current weekly status