Over 2 Crore Jobs Lost In April And May Due To Covid 2nd Wave, Says Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)

A total of 2.27 crore people lost their jobs throughout the country due to the second wave of Covid-19 infections, Mahesh Vyas, CEO, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said. “Total number of jobs in the country is of the order of 40 crore. Of these 40 crore people who were employed, 22.7 crore lost their jobs in past 2 months,” Mahesh Vyas, Head, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said.

People who lose their jobs find it hard to get employment, Mahesh Vyas had said earlier. While informal sector jobs come back quickly, the formal sector and better quality job opportunities take up a year to come back.Mr Vyas is optimistic that the situation will get better as the economy opens up, but does not believe it will be solved entirely. On a related note, many experts are of the opinion that the second wave of infections has peaked and states will ease economic restrictions in a calibrated manner; this is likely to have a positive influence on the job scene

Meanwhile, 97 per cent of households’ incomes declined since the beginning of the pandemic last year, according to a CMIE survey conducted in the month of April. In a survey of 1.75 lakh households, only 3 per cent of those polled said they have witnessed an increase in incomes. As many as 55 per cent of the surveyed people said their incomes have declined and 42 per cent said their incomes remained the same as that in the year-ago period. Adjusted for inflation, this means that 97 per cent of the households in the country have witnessed a decline in incomes during the pandemic, Mahesh Vyas reckons.

The labour participation rate, or the percentage of the working age population which is in the market, has come down to 40 per cent from the pre-pandemic levels of 42.5 per cent, he added.

Last year, the unemployment rate had touched a record high of 23.5 per cent following the national lockdown.