Unemployment in Kerala at the turn of the century: Insights from CDS Gulf migration studies

This Working Paper is about the unemployment situation in Kerala. It is based on the findings of the two Gulf Migration Studies, Kerala Migration Study (KMS) and South Asia Migration Study (SMS), conducted by the authors at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, during the last five years. The paper gives measures of unemployment rates in the state in 1998 and 2003, examines their variation by geographic regions, such as districts and taluks, by demographic characteristics such as age, sex and marital status, by sociocultural variables such as education, religion and community, and by economic indicators of households such as remittances received, quality of housing, possession of consumer durables, etc. On the basis of the trends and differentials in the profile of the unemployed, the study provides a few insights, some quite unorthodox, on the factors associated with the increase in the unemployment rate in the state during 1998-2003. As far as possible, all the assertions and conclusions are supported by factual data from the two surveys.