Public employment exchanges placed 5.45 lakh job seekers in 2024 (provisional), while 357.30 lakh remained on their Live Register

The Ministry of Labour and Employment's Annual Report 2025-26 gives the performance of the 1,014 employment exchanges. As on 31 December 2024 the report gives 71.28 lakh registrations (the year-wise table lists the same figure under 2024), 5.45 lakh placements and 357.30 lakh job seekers on the Live Register (228.59 lakh men and 128.69 lakh women). The year-wise table (in thousands) shows placements of 471.5 in 2011, 308.1 in 2020, 705.50 in 2023 and 544.65 in 2024 (provisional), vacancies notified of 1,062.6 in 2024, and a Live Register of 44,154.5 in 2023 and 35,730.1 in 2024. What these do not show: how many people on the Live Register are still looking for work: the register keeps a registrant until the registration lapses or is removed, so it overstates active job seekers, and the fall between 2023 and 2024 is not explained. The report does not say what kinds of jobs were involved, whether they were private or public, or how long placed people stayed. Most workers do not find jobs through exchanges, so placements are not a measure of overall hiring. The National Career Service portal, which complements the exchanges, is not covered here. In plain words: the public job-matching system places a few lakh people a year against a register of several crore, so it plays a small part in how people find work; the figures cannot show how many are actually waiting for a job. Evidence confidence: High for the counts as printed (2024 provisional); Low for what they say about the extent of job-search difficulty.