Lockdown in Odisha leaves over 7L jobless

IT HAS BEEN observed that the districts that had a higher share in Odisha’s employment chart had been the worst hit by the second Covid-19 wave.

Over 7 lakh people in Odisha have lost their jobs since the lockdown was re-imposed on May 5 to cut the rapid transmission of coronavirus.

As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s (CMIE) latest data, the unemployment rate in Odisha was merely around 2 per cent (1.9 per cent) in April. However, by May-end, following the enforcement of the lockdown, it shot up to 7 per cent.

Among the list of 28 states, Odisha has been among the top-5 states where the rate of unemployment has posted a sharp rise vis-a-vis the previous month.

Due to this sharp rise in the rate of unemployment in May, an estimate reveals that in the last month (May) a whopping over 10.09 lakh had no jobs at hand as against mere 2.76 lakh in April.

Significantly, such a blow to job creation has come at a time when during the first quarter of the year that ended in April, the number of unemployed in the state had increased by nearly

1.24 lakh vis-a-vis the previous quarter of September-December

2020.

Historically seen, Odisha always recorded a double-digit unemployment rate in the age group of 15 to 24 years. The rates in the beginning of 2020 stood at 12.62 per cent in the age group of 15 to 19 years and 18.09 per cent in the age group of 20-24 years. However, when cut to January to April 202, the unemployment rate had shot up sharply to 35.46 per cent and 14.91 per cent, respectively, in the same age groups.

An analysis of the district-wise data nails the prime cause. It has been observed that the districts that had a higher share in Odisha’s employment chart had been the worst hit by the second

Covid-19 wave. Cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and industrial districts like Sundergarh and Jharsuguda that provide employment in the range of 2.5-4.9 lakh were the worst hit in the second wave surge in the state, leading to the loss of jobs.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 single-day cases continue to log above 7,000 cases a month now and the daily death toll has remained above 30 for over two weeks.

On Saturday, the state recorded 7,395 new cases and 40 deaths.

With this, the positive tally in the state surged to

8,06,094 while the total number of deaths in the pandemic shot up to

2,952.

Of the fresh cases detected across 30 districts in the state on Sunday, a total of 4,169 cases were reported from quarantine centers, while the rest 3,226 were local transmission cases.