Unemployment Rate Rises To 7.77 Per Cent In October From 6.43 Per Cent In A Month: CMIE

According to the CMIE data, the urban unemployment rate saw a moderate improvement from 7.7 per cent to 7.21 per cent in the previous month

Rural unemployment has seen a steep surge from 5.8 per cent in September to 8.04 per cent in October, according to the data.

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The unemployment rate in India jumped to 7.77 per cent in October on the account of a sharp increase in rural unemployment, data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed. It was reported last month that India’s unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 6.43 per cent in September. According to the data, rural unemployment has seen a steep surge from 5.8 per cent in September to 8.04 per cent in October.

The spike can be attributed to the harvesting period of the Kharif crop which is between September and the first half of October. This results in a dip in October in rural employment, before it picks up in November when sowing for winter crops begins, according to a Moneycontrol report.  

The urban unemployment rate saw a moderate improvement from 7.7 per cent to 7.21 per cent in the previous month.
 
Among the 25 states for which data is available with the CMIE, six states registered the unemployment rate in double digits. Bihar (14.5 per cent), Haryana (31.8 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (22.4 per cent), Jharkhand (16.5 per cent), Rajasthan (30.7 per cent), and Tripura (10.5 per cent) recorded a double-digit unemployment rate.

The lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Madhya Pradesh at 0.9 per cent, followed by Chhattisgarh at 0.9 per cent, Odisha at 1.1 per cent, and Gujrat at 1.7 per cent.

Employment in agriculture has declined over the last year, among the industries. It peaked at 16.4 crore in November 2021. Since then, it fell rapidly to a low of 13.4 crore in September 2022, the CMIE data showed. Agriculture employment recovery in October 2022 at 13.96 crore is the lowest seen in any October of the last four years.