India's unemployment rate hits three-month high as layoffs escalate, latest CMIE data reveals

Indian's Unemployment Rate:  The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has released data showing an alarming increase in unemployment rates in India, reaching a three-month high in March. This trend comes amid a wave of employee layoffs globally, including in India, with many large companies already having fired employees and the number potentially rising.

While the unemployment rate dropped to 7.14 percent in January after having peaked at 8.30 percent in December 2022, the CMIE reports that unemployment has increased again in February and further rose to 7.8 percent in March. These rates are particularly high in urban areas at 8.4 percent and slightly lower in rural areas at 7.5 percent.

The Managing Director of CMIE, Mahesh Vyas, told PTI that March 2023 had seen a sharp deterioration in India's labor market, primarily due to widespread layoffs that account for 39.8 percent of the spike in unemployment.

According to CMIE data, the employment rate declined from 36.9 percent in February to 36.7 percent in March, with the number of employees dropping from 409.9 million to 407.6 million.

The March data also highlighted the states with the highest unemployment rates, with Haryana at 26.8 percent, followed by Rajasthan at 26.6 percent, Jammu and Kashmir at 23.1 percent, Sikkim at 20.7 percent, Bihar at 17.6 percent, and Jharkhand at 17.5 percent.