Unemployment rate soars at 23.4% amid coronavirus lockdown

New Delhi : The early estimates of job data indicates massive negative impact on the economy, registering the urban unemployment rate soaring to 30.9%. Overall unemployment rose to 23.4%.

The figures, based on the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s weekly tracker survey, have held steady for two weeks now. CMIE report says India’s urban unemployment rate soars to 30.9% even as overall rate rises to 23.4%, indicating covid-19’s impact on the economy.

The latest data till April 5 was released on Monday.

In a rough calculation, around 50 million people may have their jobs during the last two weeks.

"Since some may have just been sent home for now, the actual scope of unemployment may be even higher and may show up a little later," said Pronab Sen, a former chief statistician of India.

Rampant job losses have gripped many other economies, too, in the face of the pandemic. Roughly 10 million US workers filed unemployment claims in the past fortnight, for instance.

The CMIE’s jobs survey is based on a panel, which essentially means observations are derived by following a sample of people (a panel) over time at a regular frequency. The latest weekly survey had about 9,000 observations (or participants). Since two weekly surveys seem to have indicated roughly the same level of unemployment (about 23%), the numbers are reliable, said Mahesh Vyas, managing director and chief executive of CMIE. “It’s a huge spike. We didn’t expect it to be this high,” he said.