Jammu, March 20 (IANS) The Omar Abdullah government said on Thursday that the unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir was 6.1 per cent for individuals aged 15 years and above in 2023-24, as per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

Replying to a question by the National Conference (NC) MLA, Tanvir Sadiq, the government said that 3,70,811 unemployed youths had voluntarily registered on the employment portal by the end of January 2025.

“The government has implemented several self-employment schemes under initiatives like Mumkin, Tejaswani, Mission Youth, PMEGP, and REGP. These schemes have facilitated the generation of approximately 9.58 lakh self-employment opportunities since 2021. In the current fiscal year (2024-25), 1.36 lakh opportunities have been created. Additionally, under the MGNREGA programme, the government has generated 3.01 crore person-days of employment, benefiting 8.07 lakh households,” mentioned the government.

“To encourage entrepreneurship and skill development, the government has launched Mission YUVA, this ambitious initiative aims to establish 1.35 lakh entrepreneurship units and create employment for 4.5 lakh youth in Jammu and Kashmir. The department continues to promote skill development through specialised training programmes designed to enhance self-employment capacities. Regular job fairs are also conducted to bridge the gap between job seekers and employers, encouraging private sector employment,” the government said.

Unemployment among the educated and trained youth is a major problem in Jammu and Kashmir because of the absence of private sector employment avenues.

Due to the lack of industries, most of the youths either move out of the union territory seeking employment abroad or in other parts of the country.

Those preferring to serve in J&K have to seek government employment. The government sector in the UT already has a comparably higher employee population ratio among the states in the country.

–IANS

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