By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Aug 31: Data provided by the state government indicates a reduction in the unemployment rate in Meghalaya.
Responding to a special motion in the Assembly on employment by Amlarem MLA Lakhmen Rymbui, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said Meghalaya’s unemployment rate as of August 2024 is 2.98%, significantly lower than the national average of 6.78%.
He credited the improvement from 8.8% during 2017-18 to the efforts of the NPP-led state government.
Tynsong said the government brought the unemployment rate down through a multi-faceted approach to employment generally involving skill development, entrepreneurship, and creating opportunities at home and overseas.
He said that to make the state’s youth employable according to the current market standards, the ambitious programme Skills Meghalaya was launched entailing industry-aligned upskilling of 1 lakh youth from the urban and rural areas with a primary focus on sectors such as IT, healthcare, tourism, and agriculture.
The House was also told that the government developed an ecosystem of supporting entrepreneurship through 55 hubs under the PRIME Hub project. This helped mentor 15,000 youth through financial assistance, market access, and branding while 30,000 applied for the CM-Elevate scheme, surpassing the number of target beneficiaries of the initiative.
According to Tynsong, government investments in infrastructure and marketing helped create 5,600 jobs in the tourism sector alone over the last three years.
He pointed out that the state government tapped into the global job market to facilitate 2,000 skilled employees get jobs in Japan, Singapore, the UK and the Gulf nations and 15 nurses have already been placed.
“The state government now aims to generate 5 lakh employment by the end of its current tenure, where 2.3 lakh will be from agriculture and allied activities alone, followed by trade, hotels and transportation, which are expected to create 1.5 lakh opportunities,” Tynsong said.
He also said construction and manufacturing will provide 53,000 and 23,000 employment opportunities followed by mining and other sectors.
Tynsong further said 50,000 youth have been skilled in the last two years and 1.5 lakh more will be skilled in the next 3 years.