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The world’s largest confinement forced 122 million people to lose their jobs in India last month, according to estimates by a leading group of experts from the private sector.
Employment plummeted in April after the government imposed a 40-day blockade on a nation of 1.3 billion people, forcing companies to shut down and raise the unemployment rate to 27.1% in the week ended. on May 3, according to surveys by the Monitoring Center for the Indian Economy. .
According to CMIE, daily salaried workers and small business employees received a massive blow. These include street vendors, street vendors, workers employed in the construction industry, and many who make their living by pushing handcarts to rickshaws.
“This is not just a mind boggling number,” wrote Mahesh Vyas, executive director of CMIE in the Business Standard newspaper. “It is a human tragedy because these are perhaps the most vulnerable parts of society.”
Estimates of job loss in India are more than four times higher than the 30 million Americans who applied for unemployment benefits for six weeks. The data could worsen in India with the extended blockade in many areas, CMIE warned.
“Initially, a blockade only hurts the most vulnerable workforce that is informally employed in unorganized sectors,” said Vyas. “Little by little, it begins to affect the safest jobs. Startups have announced layoffs and industry associations have warned of job losses. ”
Read: Indian workers who paid $ 4 a day are caught between hunger and virus
More people are also looking for a job, and the participation rate increased to 36.2% in the week ending May 3 from 35.4% previously, Vyas said.
The government does not publish regular unemployment data, and investors rely on CMIE surveys to give them guidance on the labor market. The latest official government figures, published in May 2019, estimated the unemployment rate at 6.1% in the year through June 2018.
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