Unemployment Rate Soars To 8.3 % In Aug, Over 1.9 Million People Lose Jobs: Report

The loss, according to the CMIE was “essentially in farm jobs and reflects the seasonal nature of employment and uncertainty caused this year by an erratic monsoon”.

(Representative Image/ Getty)

New Delhi: The unemployment rate in India soared to 8.3 percent in August with over 1.9 million people losing their jobs, the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its weekly analysis.

The loss, according to the CMIE was “essentially in farm jobs and reflects the seasonal nature of employment and uncertainty caused this year by an erratic monsoon”.

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The CMIE said the employment in agriculture fell by 8.7 million in August, while the non-farm jobs increased by 6.8 million at the same time.

The employment in the form of business persons increased by nearly 4 million and those in the form of small traders and daily wage labourers increased by 2.1 million, the CMIE said, adding the salaried jobs increased marginally by 0.7 million during the month.

The CMIE further said the industrial sector shed jobs last month with employment in the industrial sector in August being 2.5 million less than in July 2021.

 “Factories, it seems, are not a reliable source of employment,” the CMIE added.

The services sector, as per the CMIE, provided 8.5 million additional jobs last month with personal non-professional services and retail trade being the big absorbers of employment within the services sector.

The manufacturing sector shed 0.94 million jobs the last month.

The manufacturing sector has permanently lost about 10 million jobs in the Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns, the CMIE said.

The manufacturing sector prior to the pandemic employed about 40 million which fell to 21 million in April 2020 and quickly climbed back to a level just short of 30 million by July 2020.

The Covid second wave brought employment in the manufacturing sector down to 26 million before recovering to nearly 29 million in July. The employment, however, slipped back to 28 million in August.

Stating “this fall in August is disappointing”, the CMIE said the fall of nearly a million jobs from the sector last month reveals how “unreliable manufacturing jobs have become”.