According to a report by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s unemployment rate stood at 7.8% for the week ending November 22.
The employment rate has slowly and steadily been sliding, in the first three weeks of November. In the first week it was 37.5%, 37.4% in the second and now 36.2% in the third week.
While this is a sign of weakening labour markets over the last four week, it also reflects the inability of the labour markets to absorb adequate proportions of the working-age population during the festive season of 2020, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said.
“The deterioration of labour metrics in November is a signal again of the early exhaustion of the recovery process that began in late May this year,” it said. “The recovery is not complete. The employment rate never reached its pre-lockdown levels. And before reaching there, it has started to decline again”.
The employment rate, according to the report, measures the population of the working-age population that are employed and is the best indicator of the summary health of the Indian economy,
“The employment rate was 39.4 per cent in 2019-20. It has been falling systematically since 2016-17 when it was 42.8 per cent. It dropped to 27.2 per cent in April and was at 30.2 per cent in May. Then it rose hesitatingly to reach 37.8 per cent in October. In the first three weeks of November, the employment rate has been sliding slowly and steadily. It was 37.5 per cent in the first week, then 37.4 per cent in the second week and now 36.2 per cent in the third week,” the report said.
Komal is an English literature student with a keen interest in economic developments and politics amongst others. She is a part of Research & Content team at HrNxt.com