Hyderabad: Even as India struggles in dealing with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic with total cases hitting the 2 million-mark, data shows that the unemployment situation in the country has returned to the pre-Covid levels.
According to independent economic think tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s unemployment rate has fallen to 7.4% in July 2020 compared with 7.8% in February 2020 i.e. a month before the nationwide lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of the virus.
Surprisingly, Uttar Pradesh has not just returned to pre-Covid level, but has in fact shown a major improvement with unemployment rate falling to 5.5% in July from 9% in February.
Unemployment rate in Maharashtra has also fallen to 4.4% in July from 4.7% in February despite the state being the worst affected in terms of the total number of coronavirus cases.
Among other key states, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan and Odisha have also shown a significant fall in their unemployment rates during the given period.
However, the coronavirus tally has taken its toll on employment in states like that of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
