20% were without work 6 months after losing jobs to lockdown

Though the employment situation has improved since the lockdown was lifted, it has not returned to the pre-covid levels yet, shows the second round of survey conducted by the Azim Premji University in collaboration with six civil society organisations to judge the impact of the pandemic on people’s livelihood.

Though over two-thirds (69 per cent) of those employed in February 2020 had lost their jobs during the lockdown enforced in April and May, the situation hasn’t returned to normal even six months after it was lifted (Septembernovember), the initial findings of the survey released today showed.

Nearly 20 per cent of the people were out of work when the survey was conducted (October to December 2020), which means they did not find even one day of work in the month preceding the survey.

The first round of survey (April and

May 2020) covered nearly 5,000 respondents (mostly from informal and vulnerable households).

In the second round (October, November and December), around 2,778 respondents from the first survey were re-interviewed, across 12 states, to understand the nature of economic recovery.

The study covered self-employed, casual and regular wage and salaried workers.

It also showed that women workers fared worse than men when it came to employment recovery (53 per cent versus 57 per cent) and urban areas were much worse hit despite quicker bounce-back.

The survey also found that for those workers employed post-lockdown, earnings have recovered to pre-lockdown levels, but since a large fraction of workers was still out of work six months later, on the whole earnings are half of what they were before the lockdown.

The study found that though nine out of 10 households had reported cutting down on their food consumption during the lockdown, six months later only a third reported that consumption was back at pre-lockdown levels.

“Urban households are worse off with 28 per cent reporting that food consumption was still at lockdown levels as against 15 per cent of rural households,” the survey found.

It said that the preliminary findings showed that a continued expanded allocation for MGNREGA, as well as the introduction of an urban employment scheme in the upcoming Budget are crucial for addressing this livelihood crisis.

Further, given the weakness in food and earnings recovery, there is an urgent need to expand the scope of the current PDS provisioning alongside an adequate security net for those who have suffered the most during this crisis, it said.

The study found that though nine out of 10 households had reported cutting down on their food consumption during the lockdown, six months later only a third reported that consumption was back at pre-lockdown levels