According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), at least 15.33 million Indians lost their jobs in May. This evidently erased gains achieved since July 2020 and may adversely affect consumer spending and economic revival.
The number of people employed fell to 375.45 million in May from 390.79 million in April.
Also, in the months of April and May, the number of people employed in salaried and non-salaried jobs fell by almost 23 million.
Since the second wave of the pandemic infected millions of Indians. It led to states going for lockdowns to stem the spread of the virus.
Fresh data also highlights the number of people unemployed but actively looking for jobs rose by 17 million to 50.72 million. This in turn reflects people’s willingness to work but scarcity of opportunities.
However, the impact of pandemic on salaried jobs is relatively less, and largely limited to urban India. But business people, small traders and daily wagers faced the brunt of the economic disruption caused by it.
At least 9 million more people got engaged in farming activities in May. This takes the total number of people employed in farming to 123.7 million.
Around 1.22 million salaried jobs were lost in urban India in May. While rural India gained a little over 1.4 million salaried jobs.
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