The drop in employment was summarised by the statistic which measured the number of employed people in May as 375.45 mn, which is a considerable drop from the figures from April – 390.79 mn. The drop in employment could have a negative impact on consumer spending and consequently, the economic revival in the months to come. The CMIE report has also highlighted that the number of individuals who had lost their jobs but were still actively looking for employment had risen by 17 mn to 50.72 mn, a stark reminder of the willingness of people to take up jobs, but the acute scarcity of the same.

Apart from the lack of employment opportunities, there seems to be a clear hesitation among employers to onboard new staffers keeping in mind, the reduced volume of business during the pandemic. There also is the prevalence of fear among many job seekers when it comes to taking on new opportunities which involve attendance in person, and not the remote option of Work From Home. According to stakeholders in the economy and policy space, barring the IT and allied sectors, almost every sphere of employment is running on an empty tank – be it retail, FMCG, automobile, hospitality, and tourism. The scenario might be similar in India’s sunshine sector too. Fears about the IT employment scene took a turn for the worse when a recent study by Bank of America estimated that 3 mn jobs were set to be slashed by Indian IT majors by 2022, on the back of automation. The report said that this downsizing is set to help these companies save as much as $100 bn annually, mostly in salaries.

The shortage of jobs in non-IT-based sectors might hit fresh batches of college pass-outs the hardest in the days to come. Owing to a culture of e-learning, millions of students have been deprived of old-school intervention in higher education. And having resorted to invigilation that has discounted critical subjects and awarded grace marks to almost all candidates, colleges now run the risk of offloading lakhs of candidates who will be unemployable in the long run and add to the cache of job seekers. It may be recalled that the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana had allocated a sum of Rs 12,000 crore over the last four years for short-term courses comprising 150 to 300 hours that were aimed at skilling the youth and making them employable. What is also required is a thorough overhaul of curriculum and pedagogy for universities to transform into institutions focussed on future proof competence-development of its students.

This week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of economic relief measures that were aimed at countering the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on India. The announcements have come just in time, as a respite for millions employed in various sectors. The current job crisis will also not disappear overnight, and the lull might remain for the next three to six months. Targeted fiscal interventions from the Centre and far-sighted policy reforms that take into consideration specific sectoral requirements could go a long way in addressing the job crisis in post-pandemic India.