New-age jobs passé? Queue for govt jobs grows

CHENNAI: Despite the State making progress in various sectors including Information Technology, the craze for ‘secure’ government jobs is still on the rise with 10 lakh more people applying for TN jobs this year. While the number of those who registered for State government jobs last year was 63.63 lakh in 2021, it has risen to 73.99 lakh candidates so far this year.

The statistics further revealed more women have registered for government jobs compared to their male counterparts. A senior official from the Labour department told DT Next that 39,45,861 women enrolled this year with the employment exchange compared to 34,53,380 males.

Claiming that Tamil Nadu tops states in the number of people waiting for government jobs after West Bengal, the official said this year 73,99,512 persons were on the waitlist compared to the previous year’s 63,63,122. “In 2020, total registrations were 59,50,948”.

Stating the reason for the increase in the enrollment at employment across the State, the Labour department official said due to the COVID-induced lockdown in 2020 many recruitment processes could not be held.

Pointing out that the number of persons aged between 24 and 35, who evinced interest in getting into government jobs also increased, he said, “last year the number of persons, who had enrolled in this age group was 22,78,107 compared to this year’s 29,88,001.

Interestingly, the official also pointed out that a total of 2,35,190 persons, aged between 45-59 years, were still waiting to get into government offices this year. “All these persons were renewing their registration every year,” he added.

“Many people were also taking it for granted that they would get employment in government offices once they register with employment exchange,” he said adding “if all of them renew their registration in the employment exchange the number of waitlists will further swell”.

Stating that of the total graduates enrolled for government jobs, science graduates outnumbered other streams, he said: “In 2022, the number of science graduates who had registered with employment exchange was 5,07,619 compared to this year’s 6,84,480.