GOLD BONDS-To What Purpose

farm sector. The number of applicants on the live registers of employment exchanges reached 36.76 million at the end of December 1992, an increase of 1.3 per cent over the level (36.3 million) a year ago. This is despite the fact that with the reduced ability of the employment exchanges to secure placements, the number of fresh registrations is not growing as fast as in the past. There has occurred a steady decline in number of vacancies notified by the employment exchanges. In 1992 such notifications numbered 4.21 lakh as against 4.60 lakh in 1991, a fall of 8.5 per cent; the peak level of vacancies notified was 5.99 lakh in 1989 which fell to 4.90 lakh in 1990 and 4.60 lakh in 1991. Similarly, the number of placements effected through the exchanges has been falling steadily; it was 2.54 lakh in 1991 which fell to 2.4 lakh in 1992; the number of placements had already declined