One in five in urban areas unemployed during lockdown last year: Official data

Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav has informed the Lok Sabha that urban areas had witnessed 20.8 per cent unemployment rate during the Covid-19-induced lockdown period last year.

New Delhi: Urban areas in India had witnessed more than 20 per cent unemployment rate during the nationwide lockdown imposed last year to contain the spread of Covid-19 infections. In response to a question asked in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav on Monday said that quarterly unemployment rate in urban areas in persons of age 15 years and above had increased from 8.3 per cent in July-September 2019 to 20.8 per cent in April-June 2020.

Citing the results of periodic labour force survey, the minister said: “As per the PLFS Quarterly Bulletin April-June 2020, quarterly unemployment rate (in %), as per Current Weekly Status(CWS) in urban areas for persons of age 15 years and above in the country to the extent available for the quarter ending July-Sep 2019, Oct-Dec 2019, Jan-March 2020 and April-June 2020 were 8.3%, 7.8%, 9.1% and 20.8% respectively.”

PLFS refers to the Annual Periodic Labour Force Survey on employment and unemployment. It is conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), a specialised agency of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

India had world’s strictest lockdown

In view of the rising number of Covid-19 cases last March, the Centre had imposed a complete nationwide lockdown. According to the six-page guidelines released by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on March 24, except the essential services like fair price shops, food, groceries, pharmacy and health services, all the non-essential services were suspended.

Dubbed as the strictest lockdown globally, the curbs on economic activities continued for nearly three months and forced lakhs of businesses to shut down resulting in the loss of millions of jobs. According to an estimate by the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), 1.8 crore business persons lost employment in April 2020 alone. Also, the average count of larger entrepreneurs had fallen to 6 crore in April 2020 from 7.8 crore in 2019-20.

“A similar quantum of loss can be seen among the coveted salaried employees. Their count dropped from 8.6 crore in 2019-20 to 6.8 crore in April 2020. This implies a drop of 21 per cent,” the CMIE said in a statement on May 5, 2020.