In order to meet its pre-poll promise 'Ghar Ghar Rozgar', a job for every household, the Punjab government in its maiden budget has claimed to generate 3-lakh jobs for the next five years. For this purpose, the government has approved a budget of Rs 91 Crore for the development of Employment Generation and Training programme for 2017-18 as compared to outlay of Rs.13.77 Crore in 2016-17. 

The government also listed 'Shaheed Bhagat Singh Rozgar Sirjan Yojna – Apni Gadi Apna Rozgar' next in line to meet the employment generation target in the state. Under the scheme, a tie up with taxi operators like Ola and Uber has already been made. It is envisaged that 3 lakh jobs would be created during the next five years under this scheme. 

Though Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal could not provide the exact number of employment youths in his budget speech but said, "We have a large number of unemployed youths in the state. The unemployed youth are prone to all type of risks including drug addiction, and even failing prey to unscrupulous elements. We have made a commitment to the people of the state that we will create one lakh additional jobs every year." However, he said, the government will open 'Rozgar Atey Karobar Bureaus' (Employment and Business Bureaus) in all districts to carry out fresh surveys for preparation of Annual Employment Plans and its time bound implementation. In another similar scheme, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Rozgar Sirjan Yojna- Hara (Green) Tractor scheme is envisaged to provide employment to youths. Under this initiative, a tractor along with other agriculture implements will be given to 25,000 youths for self-employment in agriculture services.

Former Punjab FM, Parminder Singh Dhindsa told The Statesman that the Congress had made this impractical promise just for the sake of votes. They had promised jobs in every house which is not possible. "Now they are skipping from their words and manipulating the situation. The various schemes cited by Congress to meet employment demands just a joke. Government will be completing 100 days but nothing constructive has been done so far," he said. 

Notably, the last survey to ascertain unemployment in Punjab was conducted a way back in 1998. According to this survey,  the number of unemployed youths (18-35 years) were 14.72 lakh (8.98 lakh educated and 5.74 lakh uneducated) out of which 10.40 lakh (5.84 lakh educated and 4.56 lakh uneducated) were in rural Punjab.