Government jobs recruitment fell 38 per cent in last four years, reveals study

NEW DELHI: According to data released by the government, over the last four years even the government’s major recruitment bodies including the UPSC, SSC and RRB have shown a decline in employment generated. The employment through these agencies fell by 38%.

In 2014-15 the total number of people recruited through these government bodies was about 1.13 lakh, but despite the huge number of vacancies in Central ministries and departments, in 2017-18 the figure came down to 70,805.

According to the report published by the Department of Expenditure’s Pay Research Unit, for 2016-17, there were over 4.12 lakh vacancies in government departments and ministries, as on March 1, 2016.

In recent years, the trend is that many government departments keep people on contract, said Niranjan Kumar, senior professor, Delhi University adding that “This has two benefits, it saves money and increases efficiency. That could be why the number of recruitments through the UPSC or SSC went down.”

There are many government departments where people have been kept on contract just like it has been happening in corporate, stated a senior government official.

The Central government’s major recruitment agencies for recruitment of people in various government organisations, including ministries and departments are the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Railway Recruitment Board (RRB).

According to the government data, a total of 8272 people were recruited at top levels in government machinery in the year 2014-15 and the number came down to 6314 in the year 2017-18, as far as recruitment through UPSC is concerned.