The unemployment rate in India saw a steady climb in August 2021 with the country losing a bulk of job opportunities. As per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report, the unemployment rate climbed to 8.3 per cent in August 2021, up from seven per cent in July,
The CMIE said that the country lost almost 1.9 million jobs last month. This job loss led to a dip in the employment rate to 37.2 per cent in August from 37.5 per cent in July.
The CMIE said that the loss was seen much in agriculture sector. This reflected the seasonal nature of employment and uncertainty caused by an erratic monsoon. The CMIE said that job loss in agriculture fell by 8.7 million in August and non-farm jobs increased by 6.8 million at the same time. The weekly analysis said that employment in the form of business persons increased by about four million and those in the form of small traders and daily wage labourers increased by 2.1 million. The analysis also found that the salaried jobs increased marginally by 0.7 million during the month.
The CMIE noted that the labour shed by agriculture was absorbed in the services sectors. The industrial sector also saw a decline in jobs. In the industrial sector, August 2021 saw 2.5 million less jobs than in July 2021. The manufacturing sector also saw a loss of 0.94 million jobs in August.
The service sector was better with 8.5 million additional jobs created in August. The retail trade and personal non-professional services had the largest employment opening in the service sector.
The CMIE noted that the manufacturing sector permanently lost about ten million jobs in the Covid 19 lockdowns. Ahead of the pandemic, the manufacturing sector employed about 40 million people. This fell to about 21 million in April 2020. Later it climbed back to a level just short of 30 million by July 2020. However, the second wave brought employment in manufacturing down again to 26 million with a slight recovering to about 29 million in July. In August, it again slipped to 28 million.
