The corona crisis and lockdown have led to a drastic decline in the employment of people in India. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate rose to 27.11 percent in the week ended May 3, meaning one in every four people has become unemployed. This is the highest unemployment rate ever in the country.
Mumbai think tank CMIE said the unemployment rate was the highest in urban areas at 29.22 percent, with the highest number of red zones due to the worst affected areas of corona infection. The unemployment rate in rural areas was 26.69 percent.
Unemployment may increase further
The labor participation rate has risen to 36.2 percent in the week of May 3 as compared to 35.4 percent in the week of April 21. The unemployment rate reaching record levels means that there is a huge shortage of employment and one in four men are not getting work. There is also apprehension about the further growth of this figure. Nasscom, an organization of about 2,800 IT companies, has also warned of layoffs.
It is noteworthy that the corona has stalled the economy of the world, including India. In India, the industry remained completely closed in a two-phase lockdown of about 40 days. Despite softening in the third phase of lockdown, the wheel of industries is not able to run properly. Employment cannot be expected. Thousands of migrant workers from big cities are heading back home.
In India, unemployment has been rising steadily since the corona outbreak and has risen wildly after the lockdown on March 25. According to CMIE data, though the unemployment rate during the entire March month was just 8.74 percent, it reached 23.81 percent for the week ended March 29 after the lockdown. The monthly unemployment rate in April was 23.52 percent.
76 percent unemployment in Puducherry!
According to statistics, Puducherry had the highest unemployment of 75.8 percent in South India at the end of April. This was followed by 49.8 percent unemployment in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, 47.1 percent in Jharkhand, and 46.6 percent in Bihar. According to CMIE, the unemployment rate in Maharashtra was 20.9 percent, while Haryana had 43.2 percent, Uttar Pradesh 21.5 percent, and Karnataka 29.8 percent.
Gracia is a senior writer at Get Ignite, where she covers media and advertising and co-hosts the Original Content podcast. Previously, she worked as a tech writer at Adweek, a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance. She attended Stanford University and now lives in Brooklyn.