New Delhi: Delhi has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, the state government said on Tuesday, pointing out the "sound and prosperous economic situation" in the national capital.

Releasing a report on the employment scenario in the national capital, Delhi Finance Minister Ashok Kumar Walia said: "Out of all candidates eligible for employment, about 5.42 million are employed whereas only 227,000 are unemployed."

"This means that only 1.42 percent of the total population of capital is unemployed," he said.

Among the unemployed, 198,000 were males. Of the employed people, 5.17 million were in the urban area and the remainders in the rural area.

The report has been prepared by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the Delhi government, based on a sample survey conducted during 62nd round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) during 2005-06.

The number of employed people in 2005-06 was 5.42 millions against 5.05 millions in 2004-05, showing an increase of 7.4 percent.

According to the report, 88.03 percent of the unemployed were in the 15-29 years age group.

Of the unemployed, 23,000 were illiterate, 153,000 had studied up to the middle school level, 30,000 were educated up to the 10+2 standard and only 21,000 were graduates or more, the report states.

It showed the unemployment rate in the urban area of Delhi is 36 per thousand as compared to the national average of 48 per thousand in the urban areas.

The unemployment rate in the urban areas is 37 in Haryana, 50 in Punjab, 47 in Karnataka, 39 in Tamil Nadu, 42 in Andhra Pradesh and 56 in Maharashtra.

The report states that 371,000 people were employed in Delhi during 2005-06.

Expressing his satisfaction over the findings, Walia said: "It is encouraging that 371,000 persons were employed during a single year, which reflects sound and prosperous economic situation in the capital city."

"There were ample employment opportunities in the organised sector as about 2.99 million persons (55.26 percent of the total employed) were in the category of the regular salaried class and about 2.13 million (39.41 percent of the total employed) were in the category of self-employed," Walia said.

"The number of self-employed persons in Delhi has gone up by 92,000 and that of salaried class persons by 953,000 during the year," the report states. IANS