Govt to prioritise skill development, jobs in 2025 Budget: Deloitte

The government will continue to prioritise and enhance efforts towards skill development and employment generation, picking up the momentum from the last year’s efforts, global consultancy firm Deloitte said about its expectations from General Budget 2025. This would help harness the demographic dividend, drive economic growth from both supply and demand sides and boost consumption through higher incomes, said Deloitte.

In the report, the multinational professional services network stated that the previous Budget emphasised employment generation and skill development, with initiatives such as Employment Linked Incentives and internship programmes.

According to the Periodic Labour Survey, the quarterly results for June 2024 show an increase in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for both men and women, rising to 74.7 per cent and 25.2 per cent, respectively, from 73.5 per cent and 23.2 per cent in June 2023. Additionally, the unemployment rate has been steadily declining.

On another important issue, Deloitte believes that the four labour codes will be made effective, considering aspects such as the changing workforce, the need for consistency in interpretation and enhancements in ease of business and technology use.

 The four labour codes in the country simplify existing laws, protect workers’ rights, and make compliance easier. They are: Code on Wages, 2019, Industrial Relations Code, 2020, Code on Social Security, 2020, Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020:

The regulatory environment must be upgraded to support social security and labour code, it suggests to align with tax and related regulations available for general employee class.

The labour codes also bring in additional and newer types of workforce within the social security umbrella thereby increasing coverage of the country’s working population. This calls for an urgent need to enforce the pending Labour Codes at the earliest, the Deloitte said.