Jobless rate up again

During the week ended on June 20, urban joblessness moved into double digit to 10.3% from 9.7% a week ago. Rural joblessness inched up at a higher pace to 8.92% from 8.23% recorded on June 13.

India’s unemployment rate stood at 9.35% for the week ended June 20, up from 8.7% a week ago, but lower than 13.62% for the week ended June 6. The rate hit recent peak of 14.73% on May 23.

CMIE’s MD and CEO Mahesh Vyas, in an article earlier in the month, had said the spike in unemployment rate implied that a number of people who lost employment continued to look for jobs.

During the week ended on June 20, urban joblessness moved into double digit to 10.3% from 9.7% a week ago. Rural joblessness inched up at a higher pace to 8.92% from 8.23% recorded on June 13.

Labour expert and XLRI professor KR Shyam Sundar said: “The coming two months will reflect strong tendencies either way, increase or decrease. It will take at least two quarters for labour market to stabilise, assuming effective Covid control,” he said.

Job platform Avenue Growth’s co-founder and CEO Rachit Mathur said in order to reduce cost of a full-term employment and the compliance burden, a lot of employers were moving to shift employment, and this was impacting overall employment scenario.

Genius Consultants’ chairman and managing director RP Yadav, however, said the rate may be much higher now considering the fact that a large number of informal employees still haven’t got back their job. Also, around 75% of migrant workers who gone back to their respective places during the pandemic haven’t re-joined so far due to lack of mass transport.