Economic Growth and Unemployment Rate: An Empirical Study of Indian Economy

Unemployment has been a major problem for India from a long time. The problem of unemployment is a global phenomenon, with international bodies like ILO predicting the rise in unemployment in India in coming years. The study attempts to find out the effect of economic growth on unemployment rate in India. Gross Domestic Product has been considered as an indicator of economic growth for the study. The data regarding GDP and unemployment rate have been collected from secondary sources like WorldBank database. Correlation and Regression analysis have been used to study the nature and degree of effect of economic growth on unemployment rate. It has been found that there is a strong negative correlation between economic growth and unemployment rate. Also, it was found that GDP accounts for 48% of cause of change in unemployment rate. The findings are in line with the Okun’s law and the conclusions of studies conducted in the past.