SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 14 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

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SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

As for the year 2020-21, which of the following states had the lowest unemployment rate among persons aged 15 years and above?

(a)Gujarat
(b)Sikkim
(c)Madhya Pradesh
(d)Chhattisgarh

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The figure comes from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), whose 2020-21 round covers July 2020 to June 2021.

Of the four states listed, Gujarat is the one the survey reports with the lowest unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above.

Read the term exactly. The unemployment rate is the share of the labour force that is unemployed, not the share of the population - a state can have millions out of work and still record a low rate.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Sikkim — Sikkim is not the lowest of the four on this measure. A small population does not pull the rate down, because the rate is a ratio and the labour force shrinks with it.
(c)
Madhya Pradesh — Madhya Pradesh does report a low rate - heavy dependence on agriculture keeps measured open unemployment down - but the key places Gujarat below it in 2020-21.
(d)
Chhattisgarh — Chhattisgarh is another low-rate state, and that is exactly the trap. The question asks for the lowest of the four, not simply for one that is low.

Concept

PLFS is the National Statistical Office survey that produces India's official employment numbers. It was launched in April 2017 and replaced the old five-yearly employment rounds.

Its annual reports run July to June, so a PLFS year is not a financial year.

Two reference periods matter. Usual status looks back 365 days and captures chronic unemployment. Current weekly status looks back seven days and gives a higher rate. State comparisons are normally quoted in usual status for persons aged 15 and above.

The survey publishes state-level rates alongside the all-India figure, and small states carry wider sampling error than large ones - which is why SSC asks for the extreme of a short list rather than an exact percentage.

Key facts

PLFS was launched by the National Statistical Office in April 2017.
A PLFS annual report runs July to June, so PLFS 2020-21 means July 2020 to June 2021.
Unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, not among the whole population.
PLFS 2020-21 put the all-India unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent in usual status (ps+ss) for persons aged 15 years and above, rural and urban together.

Study next

Usual status (ps+ss) against current weekly status in PLFSLabour force participation rate and worker population ratioDisguised unemployment in Indian agriculture

Common traps

Assuming a large industrial state must report high unemployment - the survey measures a rate, not a count of unemployed people.
Reading 2020-21 as a financial year when the PLFS year runs July to June.
Treating the unemployment rate as a share of the population instead of the labour force.

A PLFS-shaped item is asked either as the state at one end of a ranking, or as the definition of a single indicator.

Another economy item in this shift, 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, is GA Q.22 on what an excess of a bank's assets over its liabilities is called.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.