The unemployment rate in urban India has been on the rise since the beginning of the current month. From 8.03% for the week ended August 1, it jumped to 9.96% in the next week and further to an eight-week high of 10.23% for the week ended August 15, CMIE’s latest data showed.
At a time when the rural joblessness is hovering between 6-7% since July – it touched 7.01% for the week ended August 15 – ,the spike in urban unemployment rate to double-digit reflects the continued labour market stress in the non-agricultural sectors.
The latest periodic labour force survey also showed the sharp increase in agriculture employment. It went up to 45.6% of the total employment in 2019-20 (July-June) from 42.5% in 2018-19.
“The labour statistics for the week ended August 15 disappoint. The unemployment rate inched up and the employment rate declined. Urban regions did worse than rural regions. But, the broad trend so far in August is not too bad,” said CMIE’s MD and CEO Mahesh Vyas.
The overall unemployment rate for the week ended August 15 remained static at 8.03% compared with 8.1% in the previous week. Still, the rate is much higher when compared with the July 18 rate of 5.98%.
As the impact of the Covid-19 and restrictions on mobility eased, overall unemployment rate had declined from its recent peak of 14.73% reported for the week ended on May 23.
The consistent rise in the overall unemployment rate since July 18 shows economy’s inability to create jobs even as lock-downs and restrictions on mobility have largely been eased across the country.
Unemployment rate is a ratio between persons who are not currently in job but are actively searching for one and the total labour force.