Registration in employment exchanges in the State has shown a nearly 35 per cent increase in a year. As many as 13.11 lakh people registered in the 37 exchanges in 2009 compared to 9.73 lakh in 2008. A total of 1.35 lakh engineers and 8,408 MBBS graduates were also registered in the two professional exchanges in Chennai and Madurai in 2009, said A.S. Jeevarathinam, Director, Employment and Training, Labour Department.
Mr. Jeevarathinam credited the Labour Department's facilitatory role in registering willing students when they were receiving their certificates. The concessions given by the government in registration renewal each year from 2006 had also helped, he said.
The professional exchanges also registered a total of 3,104 dentistry graduates, 2,728 law graduates and 1,45,250 post-graduates, indicating a willingness by professionals to register themselves in the exchanges, Mr. Jeevarathinam said.
In a drive for registering secondary-grade teachers conducted recently, he said nearly 42,000 had registered on the first day.
Unemployment dole of nearly Rs.250 crore had been given to persons registered in employment exchanges in the State between October 2006 and December 2009, benefiting around 3 lakh youths each month on average, he added.
According to data given by the Director to People's Awareness Association on an RTI petition, a total of 61.35 lakh people were on the live registers of the employment exchanges as of June 2009.
While 75,000 people had been provided employment between July 2006 and June 2009 (the number had increased to around 87,000 by the end of 2009), the exchanges did not maintain district-wise and educational level-wise numbers, the reply to the petition said.
A number of private companies were also using the data to recruit persons on the second Friday of each month and around 30,000 had obtained jobs in this manner in the last three years, he said.
Unemployment doles are given for three years to those who have been registered for a period of five years at Rs.300 per month for degree holders, Rs.200 for those who have passed Plus Two and Rs.150 for those who have passed Class X, said Mr. Jeevarathinam.
A self-affidavit alone is required for people to register each year. When asked if the facts were verified following the submission of the affidavit, Mr. Jeevarathinam said it was difficult for officials to keep track of the details of all those registered.
As many as 13.11 lakh people registered in 37 exchanges in 2009.
