“The industrial sector has been growing in the city, but surprisingly the youth registered with the district employment exchange fail to land jobs,” Navnirman Sena leader Ravindra Dhangekar said.

Leading the agitation against the district employment office, Dhangekar charged the state government was not firm with the industries for not employing the city youth.

Deputy Director, district employment office, Mahesh Deshpande said the allegations were baseless as the employment office has been making all possible efforts to provide employment to those registered with them.

“There are two lakh unemployed youth registered with us and we recommend them to industries as per their demand,” Deshpande said. “We review the status of the employment situation in the district every three months and also regularly demand the industries to furnish their requirements,” he said.

The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) that had expressed concern over the migration of north Indian employees saying it was impacting business, had its own version.

“We know that there is a required manpower in the city, but our experience with the district employment office has been very bad. The industry has been regularly approaching the employment office with their requirements, but has never been able to get the required skilled labour,” vice-president of MCCIA Mukesh

Malhotra said. “Those willing to do hard work do get employed in the industries here. The industry is not hiring employees from outside the state just to save money, but for the quality work that they do. That is the reason why they are paid more,” he said.

The migration of north Indians has had a major impact on the construction industry. However, this sector does not come to the employment office for the required manpower, Deshpande said.

The service sector in the city has not been affected at all while the manufacturing sector has been feeling the heat because most of the employees that left were temporary wage earners, provided by contractors, he said.

“The district employment office does not provide for temporary employment to the youths registered with it,” Deshpande clarified

There is no sense in recruiting people with no skills to perform the jobs, he said.