MGNREGA work in January lowest in FY22

Work generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) fell to its lowest in this financial year so far in January, suggesting improvement in the labour market conditions across India as economic activity picked up pace after the abatement of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Demand for work under the flagship rural jobs scheme also remained among the lowest in the fiscal, with only October and November witnessing demand lower than this. Demand for work under MGNREGA had shot up in December.

Data from the rural development ministry’s website showed that 16 million households benefited under the scheme in January and 194 million person days of work was generated.


This represented a decline of 24.2% compared to 21.1 million households and 33% decline in person days from 290.9 million in December 2021.

The work generated declined year-on-year as well, with a 23.4% dip in beneficiary households to 20.9 million and 30.2% decline in person days from 278.2 million in January 2021.

The number of households that demanded work under the scheme stood at 21.7 million, a decline of 9.58% compared to 24 million in December while the demand from individuals fell 8.3% to 27.5 million from 30 million.

“Labour market seems to be thriving at present with economic revival in both urban and rural markets and considerable weakening of apprehensions on the third wave,” said labour expert KR Shyam Sundar.

If Covid-19 wanes considerably in the coming months and demand picks up, unemployment rates could decline further, possibly reaching pre-Covid levels, said Sundar.

The lower demand for work and subsequent work generation last month corroborates with data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) which showed a significant 6.57% dip in unemployment rates, the lowest in the country since March 2021.

As per the CMIE, rural unemployment in January was lower at 5.84% compared to 7.28% in December while urban unemployment fell to 8.16%, as against 9.3% in December.