Rural unemployment up as urban job loss slows
NEW DELHI: India’s rural unemployment rate climbed up for the second consecutive week as agricultural activities slowed down, reducing the capacity of this sector to absorb workers and also because parts of rural India observed fresh lockdowns.
The rural unemployment rate climbed to 7.66% in the week ended July 26 against the 7.1% reported in the week to July 19, according to fresh data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
This is lower than the immediate week preceding the lockdown, but is much higher than the week ended March 15 (6.07%), when India was fairly in a better position and the Covid-19 pandemic had not spread even moderately.
The national unemployment rate also inched up to 8.21% in the week ended July 26 as against 7.94% in the week to July 19 and 7.44% in the week to July 12.
However, the urban unemployment rate dropped marginally to 9.78% from 9.92% during the same time period, CMIE data showed. In a way, this is also the highest joblessness rate in three weeks. Unlike June, July will not see a good recovery in replacement jobs, and fresh job creation will take time, said economists and experts. They argue that along with the summer crop sowing season, which is drawing to a close, the spreading Covid-19 in rural India has impacted the employment scenario.
Experts said urban India will see a marginal recovery as cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai are showing positive progress to some extent, but it will take time for formal jobs to return. The CMIE data for urban unemployment showed that it has marginally dropped to 9.43% in the week to July 26 as against 9.78% in the previous week. Despite the decline, the urban joblessness rate is higher than both the rural and overall unemployment rates.