New Delhi: The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said that the Indian labor market is at its worst since April-May last year, amid a steady decline in the employment rate amid the second wave of Covid-19. Data published by CMIE showed that the unemployment rate, which reached 11.9 percent in May 2021, continued to rise in early June. The 30-day moving average unemployment rate stood at 13 percent as of June 6, 2021.
Also the labor participation rate, which fell to 40 per cent and has fallen to 39.7 per cent, and the most important labor market indicator, the employment rate, which fell from 35.3 per cent in May to 34.6 per cent as of June 6, 2021.
“The Indian labor market is at its worst since the nationwide lockdown months of April and May 2020,” said Mahesh Vyas, CEO, CMIE. The last four weeks have seen a particularly sharp deterioration in labor market conditions, he said. However, Vyas said there is hope for recovery of informal jobs lost in the unorganized sector due to the local lockdown.
The total non-farm job loss since January 2021 is 3.68 crore. Out of this, the number of daily wage laborers is 2.31 crore. According to CMIE, the number of salaried employees is 85 lakh and the rest are entrepreneurs. He said that India’s economy will have a strong recovery for jobs to recover or come back to the employment level of 2019-20.
