10. Which unemployment measure counts those without work for the major part of the reference year?
[UPPSC Civil Services Prelims – 2019]
(A) Usual-status unemployment
(B) Current daily status
(C) Current weekly status
(D) None of these
Answer: (A) Usual-status unemployment
Explanation: Usual status uses a long reference period, generally the preceding year, to determine principal economic activity. It captures persistent joblessness rather than short fluctuations within a week. Current weekly and daily status approaches use shorter reference intervals.
9. Who proposed the natural-rate-of-unemployment hypothesis?
[UPSC CDS – 18 November 2018]
(A) Milton Friedman
(B) A. W. Phillips
(C) J. M. Keynes
(D) R. G. Lipsey
Answer: (A) Milton Friedman
Explanation: Milton Friedman helped develop the natural-rate hypothesis, arguing against a permanent stable trade-off between inflation and unemployment. Phillips had earlier described an empirical wage–unemployment relationship. Expectations matter: attempts to hold unemployment below its sustainable rate can fuel accelerating inflation.
8. People who choose not to work at the prevailing wage rate are classified as what?
[RPSC Senior Teacher (Social Science) – 29 October 2018]
(A) Voluntarily unemployed
(B) Frictionally unemployed
(C) Casually unemployed
(D) Seasonally unemployed
Answer: (A) Voluntarily unemployed
Explanation: Voluntary unemployment occurs when someone declines available work at the prevailing pay or conditions. This differs from involuntary unemployment, where a person is willing and able to work but cannot secure employment. The distinction hinges on willingness to accept existing offers.
7. With reference to National Career Service, consider:
(1) it is a Department of Personnel and Training initiative;
(2) it was designed specifically to improve opportunities for uneducated youth.
Which statement is correct?
[UPSC Civil Services Prelims – 2017]
(A) 1 only
(B) 2 only
(C) Both 1 and 2
(D) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: (D) Neither 1 nor 2
Explanation: National Career Service is administered through the Ministry of Labour and Employment, not the Department of Personnel and Training. It provides career-related assistance more broadly to job seekers, employers and counselling agencies, not exclusively to uneducated young people.
6. What share of GDP did India’s service sector exceed according to this WBCS question?
[WBCS Prelims – 2017]
(A) 33%
(B) 40%
(C) 42%
(D) 50%
Answer: (D) 50%
Explanation: The services sector had grown into the largest contributor to India’s output by the time of the examination. The correct threshold among the options is more than 50%. Services include trade, transport, financial services and a wide range of professional activities.
5. What was the Current Daily Status unemployment rate in India in NSS 2011–12?
[CGPSC Prelims – 2016]
(A) 2.2%
(B) 5.6%
(C) 8.0%
(D) 7.1%
Answer: (B) 5.6%
Explanation: The 2011–12 survey placed unemployment measured by current daily status at 5.6%. The daily-status measure incorporates day-to-day employment experience within a reference week and can differ substantially from usual-status unemployment measured over a longer period.
4. Which sector accounted for the largest share of India’s GDP?
[WBCS Prelims – 2013]
(A) Agriculture
(B) Industry
(C) Services
(D) Foreign trade
Answer: (C) Services
Explanation: By 2013 the services sector contributed the greatest share of Indian GDP. Large activities included trade, transport, banking, real estate and communications. Agriculture nevertheless remained a crucial employer, highlighting the distinction between labour-force distribution and output composition.
3. Which programme was not merged into the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana launched in December 1997?
[UPSC Civil Services Prelims – 2000]
(A) Nehru Rozgar Yojana
(B) Urban Basic Services Programme
(C) Prime Minister’s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme
(D) Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana
Answer: (D) Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana
Explanation: The urban livelihood programme combined selected earlier urban poverty and employment initiatives. Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana was separate and not one of the merged programmes. Identifying the distinction requires knowing the institutional consolidation implemented under SJSRY in 1997.
2. What was the principal purpose of the National Renewal Fund?
[UPSC Civil Services Prelims – 1999]
(A) Protect workers affected by technological modernisation or closure of sick units
(B) Develop only core industries
(C) Fund energy and transport infrastructure
(D) Finance literacy, housing and drinking water generally
Answer: (A) Protect workers affected by technological modernisation or closure of sick units
Explanation: The National Renewal Fund was designed as a social safety measure for workers affected by industrial restructuring, modernisation and closure of unviable enterprises. Worker assistance, redeployment and retraining were central concerns, rather than the general financing of infrastructure.
1. Urban Micro Enterprises, Urban Wage Employment and Housing and Shelter Upgradation were components of which programme?
[UPSC Civil Services Prelims – 1997]
(A) Integrated Rural Development Programme
(B) Nehru Rozgar Yojana
(C) Jawahar Rozgar Yojana
(D) Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana
Answer: (B) Nehru Rozgar Yojana
Explanation: Nehru Rozgar Yojana was an urban anti-poverty and employment programme containing components for self-employment, wage employment and housing improvements. The other listed schemes had different beneficiaries or design. The grouping of these three components identifies the Nehru scheme.
