According to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in India has soared to a record of 27.1 percent with millions of daily-wage earners losing their jobs during the lockdown.
The new data reveals that India’s unemployment figures are four times higher than that of the United States, where coronavirus wreaked havoc in the past few weeks
The country has been in lockdown since 25 March to curb Covid-19 infections, causing mass layoffs and heavy job losses.
India currently has close to 50,000 reported infections.
Unemployment hit 23.5% in April, a sharp spike from 8.7% in March. This is attributed to the lockdown, which brought most economic activity – except essential services such as hospitals, pharmacies and food supplies – to a standstill.
Large companies across various sectors – media, aviation, retail, hospitality, automobiles – have announced massive layoffs in recent weeks. And experts predict that many small and medium businesses are likely to shut shop altogether.
Of the 122 million who have lost their jobs, 91.3 millions were small traders and labourers. But a fairly significant number of salaried workers – 17.8 million – and self-employed people – 18.2 million – have also lost work.
Notably, the experts warn that the economic cost of the lockdown is only starting to get higher.
