Only 7.22 lakh aspirants out of 22.05 crore who applied for central government jobs have been recruited since 2014, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh presented the data in the Lok Sabha in response to a question by Congress MP from Telangana, Anumula Revanth Reddy.

The highest recruitment in central government posts was made in 2019-’20 – the year of elections to the Lok Sabha – when 1.47 lakh persons were appointed.

Year-wise data of candidates appointment in different government departments. |Source: LokSabha.nic.in

Prior to this, the number of candidates selected for government jobs was in continuous decline since 2014-’15 when 1.30 lakh aspirants were appointed.

According to the data, 1.11 lakh applicants were selected in 2015-’16, 1.01 lakh in 2016-’17, 76,147 in 2017-’18 and 38,100 in 2018-’19. In 2020-’21 and 2021-’22, the numbers were 78,555 and 38,850.

In terms of applications, the highest number of aspirants – 5.09 crore – applied for jobs in departments of the central government in 2018-’19. The lowest was in 2019-’20 with 1.78 crore applicants.

Year-wise data of applications received for appointment in different government departments. |Source: LokSabha.nic.in

In his reply on Wednesday, Singh said that employment generation was a priority for the government. He also listed several initiatives taken by the government for generating employment.

“Budget 2021-22 launched Production Linked Incentive [PLI] schemes, with an outlay of Rs. 1.97 lakh crore, for a period of 5 years starting from 2021-22. The PLI Schemes being implemented by the government have the potential for creating 60 lakh new jobs,” he said.