Parul
As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s weekly tracker survey, jobs data indicate that the coronavirus effect has left a devastating impact on the economy, soaring the urban unemployment rate to 30.9 per cent. Meanwhile, the overall unemployment has risen to 23.4 per cent.
As per CMIE’s estimate, unemployment has shot up from 8.4 per cent in mid-March to the current 23.4 per cent. Based on a rough calculation, about 50 million people might have lost jobs in just two weeks of the lockdown, quoted Pronab Sen, a former chief statistician of India. He also said that since some may have just been sent home for now, the actual scope of unemployment may be even higher and may show up a little later.
In fact, sudden job losses have gripped many other economies, too, in the face of the pandemic. Roughly 10 million US workers filed unemployment claims in the past fortnight, for instance.
The survey of nearly 9,500 participants estimated that overall unemployment shot up to 23.4 per cent in the week ended April 5. For the full month of March, the jobless rate came in at 8.7 per cent, a 43-month high. Since two weekly surveys seem to have indicated roughly the same level of unemployment (about 23 per cent), the numbers are reliable, said Mahesh Vyas, managing director and chief executive of CMIE. “It’s a huge spike. We didn’t expect it to be this high,” he added.
Former finance ministry bureaucrat, SC Garg has said that the lockdown has left an estimated 100 million workers in mining, construction, manufacturing and services jobless.
In fact, the data from government surveys show close to 14 crore jobs are at immediate risk in a post-Covid India. Meanwhile, the government is considering amending the rules for availing unemployment benefit under the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation.
