The bad days in terms of employment continue to haunt the job-seekers in the country. According to the data released by the independent think-tank, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), in the month of April, unemployment rate spiked to 7.83 per cent in April from 7.60 per cent in March, 2022.
The Mumbai-based think tank’s data showed Haryana topped the chart with unemployment rate of 34.5 percent, followed by Rajasthan with 28.8 per cent.
Other states which recorded the double-digits unemployment rate included:
Bihar: 21.1%
Goa: 15.5%
Tripura: 14.6%
Jharkhand:14.2%
Jammu & Kashmir: 15.6%
Delhi: 11.2%
The urban unemployment rate rose to 9.22 percent in April from 8.28 percent in the previous month, while the rural unemployment rate slipped slightly to 7.18 percent from 7.29 per cent.
The urban unemployment has spiked to the highest in the month of April since the beginning of 2022, while the rural unemployment rate peaked in February with 8.35%.
The report suggests that job opportunities bore the brunt of sluggish domestic demand and slacked economic recovery amid rising prices.
CMIE Managing Director Mahesh Vyas said to Bloomberg Television: “I think the government is falling short of what is required to create good quality jobs.”
“There is no safety net, and people still quit the labour market. We see it as a sign of distress. People have given up looking for jobs actively and also moved out of the labour force.”
According to CMIE, more than half of India’s 900 million legal workers — nearly the population of the United States and Russia combined — do not want to work. The overall labour participation rate dropped from 46 percent to 40 percent between 2017 and 2022. The scenario is vast more abysmal for women.
Around 21 million people left the circle of labour force, leaving only 9% of the working-age population employed or seeking employment.
The government, in its quarterly employment survey (QES), released on April 28, said that 400,000 jobs were created by the nine key sectors including trade, manufacturing, and IT created during October-December 2021. But, it seems a short number in front of the number of people looking for jobs.
Notably, India’s retail inflation, gauged by Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased to 6.95 percent in March, while the inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) jumped to a four-months high record of 14.55 percent in March from 13.11 percent in February.