Unemployment Rate Reaches 11.9% In May 2021, Continues To Rise: CMIE
"The Indian labour market is in its worst condition since the nationwide lockdown months of April and May 2020," said Mahesh Vyas, Managing Director and CEO of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt Ltd.
The last four weeks have seen a particularly sharp deterioration in labour market conditions. The downturn began in the week ended May 16. During this week, the labour participation rate was at 40.5 per cent which was higher by a whisker than the average 40.4 per cent rate around which this ratio has been hovering for several months since the 2020 lockdown, he added.
Low and falling labour participation rate and high unemployment rate imply a fall in the employment rate and a fall in absolute employment. As per the report the employment rate fell from 36.8 per cent in April 2021 to 35.3 per cent in May 2021. This shows a loss of 15.3 million jobs.
Highlighting the major reason for the job loss, Vyas said. " This relentless loss of employment can be expected to abate somewhat in the coming weeks as many parts of the country that were under a lockdown have started announcing cautious relaxations. Nearly 17 million daily wage labourers and small traders such as hawkers lost employment in May 2021. Most of these losses were the direct outcome of the increasing lockdowns across the country during the month."
"The unlocking process can be expected to repair about two-thirds of the job losses associated with the lockdown of May 2021. That would be 17 million out of the 25 million non-farm jobs lost during the month," Vyas added.
