Despite many signs of improvement in the economy, employment has declined by 5.5 lakhs in October. This fact has been revealed by data from the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
The unemployment rate had come down to 6.7 percent in September 2020, but in October it again increased to about 7 percent. Now everyone’s eyes are on the GDP figures by the end of this month. Only the true picture of the economy will be revealed from GDP.
CMIE said that several indicators suggest that by mid-October, the labor market had stabilized or its condition was deteriorating.
Derailment improvement
According to the data, the employment situation had improved in May, June and July after the corona lockdown, but later derailed. There is no significant improvement in August, September, and now October. The level of improvement in employment is still far away from the earlier phase of lockdown.
There is no difference in the festive season
Significantly, October is a festive month and it is also the month of sowing of Kharif crop. This month also witnessed an electoral atmosphere in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. But there was no significant improvement in the demand of these workers.
According to the CMIE, the labor participation rate in October was 40.66 percent, which is exactly equal to the month of September, which means that there is no improvement. A year ago i.e. in October 2019, it was 42.9 percent.
Alarming data
This figure is worrisome because the labor participation rate never went below 42 per cent before the lockdown. Hence the labor participation rate in October is much lower than the level seen before February.
