The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE,) on the 19th of August, released data of people who lost jobs during the pandemic.
According to the CMIE released data, nearly 50 lakh salaried employees lost jobs in July.
Meanwhile, since April till date nearly 1.89 crore people lost their jobs amid the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. In May, 1 lakh people lost their jobs.
Mahesh Vyas, the CEO of CMIE said,”While salaried jobs are not lost easily, once lost, they are also far more difficult to retrieve. Therefore, their ballooning numbers are a source of worry. ” He further added, “Salaried jobs were nearly 19 million (190 lakh) short of their average in 2019-20. They were 22 % lower than their level in the last fiscal year.”
In addition, the CMIE data also revealed about daily wages workers being jobless during the pandemic.
According to the data, around 68 lakh daily wage earners lost their jobs during this period.
However, around 1.49 crore people took to farming during this period.
The major reason behind the situation, where crores of people lost jobs came after the lockdown imposed affected small businesses and enterprises, on their economic situation.
The nationwide lockdown was imposed on the 24th of March as a preventive measure to control the spread of the Novel Coronavirus.
Later during the unlock phase, the rate of gaining jobs was slow compared to the speed of losing.
Anusree Paul, a Trade Economist said, “During unlocking, jobs recovery pace is extremely slow. Rural and informal sector employment have shown signs of improvement due to government incentives announced last month.”
In India, the majority of the GDP is from salaried jobs from the informal sector, than employment.
If experts are to be believed, India’s informal economy will be hardest hit if there is no improvement in salaried jobs. They also believe that it will lead to a substantial delay in economic recovery.
Meanwhile, Till the 20th of August, India crossed 28 lakhs cases of the Novel Coronavirus and death cases surpassed 58,000.
Stay tuned for further updates.
