On June 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s office said that it had asked government departments and ministries to recruit 1 million people in “mission mode” for the next year and a half.

PMO said Modi’s directive was issued after reviewing the human resources status of all government departments and ministries.

The decision comes at a time when the opposition has often criticised unemployment. Many vacancies in different government departments are regularly flagged.

The government informed Parliament earlier this year that there were more than 8.72 lakh vacancies in central government departments as of March 1. The central government approved more than 40 lakh jobs but employed fewer than 32 lakhs. According to News18, the government has been trying to fill the vacancy for years with little success.

Large ministries and departments such as postal, national defence (civil affairs), railways, and taxation have the most vacancies. Of the nearly 15 lakh sanctioned jobs, the Ministry of Railways has about 2.3 lakh vacancies, according to details from News18.

There are about 2.5 lakh vacancies in the defence (civil affairs) sector and nearly 6.33 lakh sanctioned employees. The postal sector has more than 90,000 vacancies with a total approved workforce of 2.67 lakh and the tax sector has nearly 74,000 vacancies with a total approved workforce of 1.78 lakh.

Of the 10.8 million jobs approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs, nearly 1.3 lakh are vacant.

A senior government official explained to News18 that while retirees have emerged and the number of staff across ministries has grown over time, work in some departments has been hampered by severe staff shortages and slow new hiring. The action could help quell opposition criticism of unemployment ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

According to data provided by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), 8 million people joined the country’s workforce in April, possibly one of the biggest increases since the pandemic began.

However, India’s unemployment rate rose to 7.83% in April from 7.60% in March, according to the CMIE report.

According to a 2020 report by the McKinsey Global Institute, India needs to create at least 90 million new non-farm jobs by 2030 to stay ahead of the youth population.