Viral post omits BJP-ruled states with higher rates of unemployment

What's the claim?

Social media users have posted a list of Indian states along with their unemployment rates claiming that these are the states with the highest unemployment rates in India. According to the list, the states are Kerala (29.9 percent), Goa (19.1 percent), Punjab (18.8 percent), Uttar Pradesh (9.8 percent), West Bengal (9 percent), and Telangana (5.83 percent). The posts further go on to call out the alliance of opposition parties the "INDI alliance" for criticizing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for unemployment while not being able to control unemployment in their own states. 

"INDI allaince" is how the BJP including top leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi refer (archived link) to the INDIA bloc coalition which contested against the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by the BJP ahead of the 2024 Indian elections. 

One post reads, "and so called leader of INDI Alliamce crying on unemployment. First they should control unemployment in their own state instead of blaming BJP (sic)." Archive links to the posts can be found here and here.

Screenshots of posts carrying the claim omitting certain states that figure in the real list of states with highest unemployment rates. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, social media users have omitted certain states that are ruled by the BJP but rank higher in terms of unemployment while creating the viral list. 

What did we find?

First, we checked the percentages quoted as unemployment rates of the states in the viral claim by tallying with data on youth unemployment (age: 15-29 years and percentages in both rural and urban areas) from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) between June 2023 to July 2024. The report is published annually by the Ministry of Statistics and National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).

We found that while some of the quoted percentages are correct, the viral list wrongly mentions the unemployment rates of Telangana and Uttar Pradesh as 5.83 percent and 9.8 percent; official data shows them as 16.6 percent and 9.1 percent respectively.

Further, we found that according to the data, the top six states in India with the highest unemployment rates actually are:

1. Kerala - 29.9 percent

2. Nagaland - 27.4 percent

3. Manipur - 22.9 percent

4. Arunachal Pradesh - 20.9 percent

5. Goa - 19.1 percent

6. Punjab - 18.8 percent

Nagaland, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh, states that stand at second, third, and fourth position in terms of unemployment rates nationwide have been excluded from the list posted on social media. All three of these states are ruled by the BJP or its allies, making it clear that the claim that states ruled by the parties belonging to the INDIA bloc have the highest unemployment rates is incorrect. 

We also found that the states of West Bengal (9 percent) and Uttar Pradesh (9.1 percent) hold the ninth and tenth position if counted in terms of the states with the lowest rates of unemployment. Moreover, we found that Telangana (16.6 percent) holds the twelfth position in terms of the states with the highest rates of employment. 

A report by The Indian Express has also included the states of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh in a top ten list of states with lowest unemployment, in contrast to viral list which claims they are states with the highest unemployment.

Counting both states and Union Territories, using PLFS data, we found that the highest unemployment rate is in Lakshadweep, at 36.2 percent, while the lowest is in Madhya Pradesh, at 2.6 percent .

The PLFS unemployment rate statistics released on September 23, 2024, have been reported on by several news outlets. Some of these reports can be found here and here. 

The verdict

This post is misleading as it has not correctly listed the states with the highest unemployment rates according to the latest available data. The BJP or its alliance-ruled states of Nagaland, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh were excluded from the viral list; instead, some states ruled by parties belonging to the INDIA bloc which rank much lower in terms of high unemployment have been named.