Falling Jobless Rate and Risks to Employment- Relevance for UPSC Exam
- GS Paper 3: Indian Economy- Issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
Falling Jobless Rate and Risks to Employment- Context
- Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data shows that India’s unemployment rate touched a four-month high of 7.9 percent in December.
- The CMIE numbers show a significant declining trend even before the economic activity was affected due to the fresh Covid-19 restrictions imposed in many states.
Falling Jobless Rate and Risks to Employment- Key Findings
- Rising Unemployment: The unemployment rate rose to 7.9 % in December. It stood at 7 % in November last year and 9.1 % in December 2020.
- Rising Urban Unemployment: Urban unemployment rate rose to 9.3 % in December from 8.2 % in the previous month while the rural unemployment rate increased to 7.3 % from 6.4 %.
- The urban unemployment rate on a weekly level had spiked to a double-digit rate to around 10.09 percent in mid-December.
- Significance of Findings: These numbers are significant as they show a declining trend even before the new Covid-19 wave has led to fresh restrictions being imposed on business.
Aatamanirbhar Skilled Employee-Employer Mapping Portal (ASEEM Portal)
Falling Jobless Rate and Risks to Employment- Risks to Employment
- Risks to Better Paying Jobs: Urban employment is a proxy for better-paying jobs and a decline in these numbers reflects the impact on better-paying organized sector jobs.
- Omicron (Covid-19 Variant) Threat: Amid the threat posed by the Omicron variant, many states imposing fresh curbs, economic activity, and consumption levels have been affected.
- This could adversely affect economic recovery further going ahead.
The All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey