COVID Crisis: 7 Million People Jobless In India

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is showing a drastic effect on unemployment in our country. The unemployment rate rose to nearly 8% in April and the situation is also getting worse with the state administrations extending the lockdown due to the second wave of the coronavirus. From March to April, the unemployment rate has raised from 6.5 % to 7.97 % with more than 7 million jobs lost last month.

Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy did Private Research and found shocking results. CMIE Managing Director Mahesh Vyas said that there is a huge fall in the available jobs and it could be due to the lockdown.

As the virus is quite intense, the government is stressing the medical health services and the situation is going to be the same in May as the number of deaths in India hit a record. India became the first country to register more than 400000 daily cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a strict lockdown in March 2020 which resulted in millions losing jobs. The government has failed to curb the virus as well as improve the economy.

On the other hand, the weak employment outlook has become a risk for India’s chances of reaching economic growth. So many economists have already lowered their projections. Barclays Bank PLC has lowered its forecast by 1% to 10% as there is still uncertainty around the number of cases and fatalities.

The lack of vaccinations is also hurting India’s recovery prospects very badly. a separate survey by HS Market showed that the manufacturing sector is still losing jobs in April which has been threatening the Indian economy.