Jobless rate in FY12 below 4%

New Delhi: The labour department is set to peg unemployment for 2011-12 at below 4%, admitting to faulty assessment of 9.4% for the previous fiscal and adding to the list of inflated official data released in the past.

The department has estimated unemployment for 2011-12 at 3%-4%, which will be reported in its second annual employment and unemployment survey, an official told ET.

The official said the revision in the figure follows correction in the methodology used, better training of field officers and improvement in the sample size and choice. "Not only have we changed our methodology after consulting top experts, the sample size is more than double the number interviewed in the first year and we have covered the entire country," the official said.

The figure is closer to the 2.8% estimate of the National Sample Survey Organisation in 2008. The labour department official said, "The first time we were in a hurry and had not prepared well. There were some inaccuracies in the methodology used, which led to inflated numbers."