21 million salaried people lost jobs from April to August

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy has estimated that as many as 21 million salaried people lost their jobs between April 1st and August 31st. For at least two months during the said period, the nationwide lockdown was severe in India due to the fear of coronavirus.

“About 3.3 million jobs were lost in the month of August. As many as 4.8 million jobs were lost in July,” CMIE said.

Among those who lost their jobs are support staff, industrial workers and white-collar workers. Salaried jobs in August came down to 65 million, the CMIE report added.

In August, the unemployment rate of India was 8.35%, which was more than that in July. Urban unemployment rate was higher than that of rural areas.

The fact that cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad are yet to get back to normalcy is affecting the jobs story big-time.

Economists are urging the government to give a stimulus to help the economy tide over the crisis. An urban employment guarantee scheme might be envisioned by the Centre to create low-paying jobs for wage-earners.