Employability of state youths waning, says minister

SHILLONG: The employability of youths in Meghalaya has decreased due to dearth of skills and experience and there is a need for more impetus on the development of skill training, Labour Minister Prestone Tynsong said in the House on Thursday.
Replying to a motion, Tynsong said, “The exodus of rural students to cities is another factor that is connected to unemployment.”
Reading out statistics on joblessness, the minister said unemployment rate in Meghalaya in the age group of 15-29 years is 115 persons per 1,000. The rate of unemployment is 11 persons out of 1,000 for the age group of 30 years and above.
The number of registrations at the Employment Exchange is 43,371 till 2017. Last year, 3,623 unemployed youths registered and 964 vacancies were notified. There was a placement too, he added.
The government has adopted a three-pronged strategy — generation of self-employment opportunities by providing training programmes and enhancing skills under different central schemes — to mitigate the problem of unemployment, Tynsong informed.
He added that there was a provision of daily wage through some programmes like MGNREGA, besides there is also a provision for jobs in different departments and the private sector as per the existing norms and policies.
The issue of unemployment has been raised in the House by several MLAs in the last few days.