Current weekly unemployment rate stands at 49-week high

In past year, unemployment was highest in May at 21.73 per cent, when country was facing wrath of first coronavirus wave. In second Covid-19 wave, April turned out to be worse than expected when it came to jobs as states resorted to strict lockdowns

Weekly unemployment rate has seen a sudden rise to 14.45 per cent in the week ending May 16, data released by the private think tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows. This is almost double of 8.67 per cent unemployment rate on May 9. The current weekly unemployment rate stands at a 49-week high.

In the past year, unemployment was the highest in May 2020 at 21.73 per cent, when the country was facing the wrath of the first coronavirus wave. In the second Covid-19 wave, the month of April turned out to be worse than expected when it came to jobs as states resorted to strict lockdowns.

The unemployment rate shot up from 6.5 per cent in March to 7.97 per cent in April, while the employment rate fell from 37.6 per cent in March to 36.8 per cent in April, shows the CMIE data.

As per the CMIE, the lockdowns could have denied people from seeking employment and caused a fall in labour participation. It said the economy was not in a position to provide jobs to a large number of people.

While the labour force shrank by 1.1 million in April, the count of the employed fell by a much larger 7.35 million, says the CMIE estimate. This fell from 398 million in March to 390.79 million in April. The CMIE data shows the count of the unemployed, who were willing to work and were actively looking for work but unable to find any, expanded by 6.2 million from 27.7 million in March to 33.9 million in April.

Unemployment, Covid-19, Lockdown, second wave covid-19, Market