As our government continues to say that it has no data on job losses amid the pandemic, the actual data shows a grim picture of the state of unemployment in India.
According to CMIE, an estimated 6.6 million white collar professional jobs were lost in India between May and August, this year.
This brought professional employment to the lowest levels since 2016 and wiped off all gains made in the last 4 years.
Further, data from CMIE suggests that around 5 million industrial workers were out of work during this period.
White-collar professionals were the worst-hit due to the pandemic. This includes, software engineers, physicians, teachers, accountants, analysts and those employed in some private or government organisation.
As stated by CMIE,
From a peak of 18.8 million white collar workers employed in the country during May-August 2019, their employment fell down to 12.2 million in May-August 2020. This is the lowest employment of these professionals since 2016.
However, the lockdown did not impact white-collar clerical employees like desk-work employees ranging from secretaries and office clerks to data-entry operators and the types.
A day after #NationalUnemploymentDay trended on Twitter, netizens expressed their resentment with the current state of affairs in India.
No doubt, why unemployment in India continues to remain the lowest.