Emerging Employment and Unemployment Scenarios in West Bengal:Implications for Policy

This paper seeks to build some understanding of the employment and unemployment situation in West Bengal during past two decades or so. This is important in view of added emphasis on employment generation both by the state and central governments in the Tenth Plan period. For setting appropriate policies towards employment generation/unemployment reduction, it is necessary to develop state-specific understanding of the trends and dimensions of employment/unemployment particularly in recent years. A part from delineating emerging employment/unemployment scenarios, this paper attempts projections of employment/unemployment in West Bengal by the end of Tenth Plan period and offers some suggestions that might be useful to combat adverse situation on the employment/unemployment front.