In a written reply to the question of panthers party MLA, Harsh Dev Singh, state government said in the legislative assembly that the total number of unemployed in the state has reached 1 lakh. Out of this number, the number of unemployed in Jammu region was more than in Kashmir. The total number of unemployed youth in Jammu region is near 60 thousand as against 45 thousand from Kashmir.

Government also said that it was framing an employment policy in the state for creating the employment opportunities to tackle the growing unemployment.

In the reply government also informed the house that there were many agricultural graduates who are jobless.

In 2007 the number of technocrats registered with the different employment exchanges was 9832 while as the number of agricultural graduates was 441 and the post graduates numbered 219. In 2008, the number of technocrats was 9628 while as 451 agricultural graduates were registered and the number of post graduates who were registered was said to be 193.

State government also clarified that it has not made any commitment that it will employ one member of each family in the government services.

Giving a break-up of the vacancies in the different government departments, government said that the total number of vacancies in the gazetted, non-gazetted and class-IV categories was 27333. From all the departments, highest number of vacancies was in the school education department with the total number of vacancies being 13973 from which the vacancies in the gazetted class category were 2616 while as those in the non-gazetted category were 9619 and in the class-IV category the total number of vacancies was 1738.

In the education department the total number of employment made during the year 2008 in the gazetted category was 1550, while as in the departments of social welfare, law, technical education, rural development, and planning and development department not a single appointment was made.

In the non gazetted category the maximum number of employment made in the year 2008 was also in the education department which was 275 while as in the transport, civil aviation, and tourism department not a single employment was made.