Disguised unemployment generally means

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UPSC Civil Services (Prelims) Official Paper 2013
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  1. large number of people remain unemployed
  2. alternative employment is not available
  3. marginal productivity of labour is zero
  4. productivity of workers is low

Answer (Detailed Solution Below)

Option 3 : marginal productivity of labour is zero
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The correct answer is the marginal productivity of labour is zero.

Key Points

  • Disguised Unemployment:
    • It is a phenomenon wherein more people are employed than actually needed.
    • It is primarily traced in the agricultural and the unorganised sectors of India​.
    • The marginal productivity of labour is zero.
  • Hence the correct option is 3.

​​Additional Information

  • Seasonal Unemployment:
    • It is unemployment that occurs during certain seasons of the year.
    • Agricultural labourers in India rarely have worked throughout the year.
  • Structural Unemployment:
    • It is a category of unemployment arising from the mismatch between the jobs available in the market and the skills of the available workers in the market.
    • Many people in India do not get the job due to a lack of requisite skills and due to the poor education level, it becomes difficult to train them.
  • Cyclical Unemployment:
    • It is the result of the business cycle, where unemployment rises during recessions and declines with economic growth.
    • Cyclical unemployment figures in India are negligible. It is a phenomenon that is mostly found in capitalist economies.
  • Technological Unemployment:
    • It is the loss of jobs due to changes in technology.
    • In 2016, World Bank data predicted that the proportion of jobs threatened by automation in India is 69% year-on-year.
  • Frictional Unemployment:
    • Frictional Unemployment also called Search Unemployment, refers to the time lag between the jobs when an individual is searching for a new job or is switching between the jobs.
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