One-Fourth Of India's Population Lost Their Jobs Due To COVID-19

While the COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed over 49,000 positive cases, more than 1,600 deaths, along with a nationwide lockdown that has been lasting for 5 weeks, people in India have been suffering a job crisis too.

The job crisis is affecting Indians in some crucial sectors of the country’s economy due to the prolonged lockdown. The ongoing crisis is threatening to put more people into poverty, including both white and blue-collar workers.

CMIE has released its latest monthly data, indicating the unemployment rate in India went up to 23.5 percent last month. The April unemployment rate was the highest in some of the large states such as Tamil Nadu (49.8%), Jharkhand (47.1%), and Bihar (46.6%). The rate was lower at some other states like Punjab (2.9%), Chhattisgarh (3.4%), and Telangana (6.2%).

Worse, in the latest figure as of May 3, the unemployment rate in India has gone up to 27.1 percent, the highest rate ever recorded. CMIE CEO and managing director Mahesh Vyas said Tuesday that this data shows that the rate could go even higher.

“The estimated loss of employment between March and April 2020 is 114 million, given that the total count of employment is around 400 million, the loss of 114 million implies that one in every four employed persons lost their jobs.”

Vyas added that the employment rate was extremely low, registering just 35.6% last month and the extension of the nationwide lockdown could make the situation even worse. Some of the worst-hit areas include SMEs, restaurants and hotels, airlines, retail, multiplexes, media, and manufacturing. As companies struggle with the pandemic, they have had to lay off employees.

And the job crisis seems to be affecting urban areas more than rural ones as the agriculture sector is not hit as badly. Meanwhile, daily-wage earners are affected the most, who make up one-fourth of the labor force in the country and present the most in transport and construction.

All in all, India’s overall attempts to help millions of people escape poverty will suffer a serious setback. The situation seems rough and we just hope for all this to be over already.

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