Unemployment Rate Rose To 6.9% In October, Worst In The Last Two Years: CMIE Report

As per a report by Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), labour statistics are showing continuous deterioration in the labour markets exception being the September month. In the month of October, the unemployment rate rose to 6.9%, which is the worst in the last two years.

The number of people employed in October 2018, was 397 million, which is 10 million lesser than the number in October 2017. Labour market showed a slight improvement in the month of September but the effect was negated by the dip in October.

Only 39.5 % of the adult population was employed in October 2018, the lowest in the last two years.

Demonetisation effects linger on

The unemployment rate doesn’t give a complete picture of the labour market conditions in the country. Better ways to measure are the labour participation rate and employment rate. The labour participation rate is a measure of the number of persons whether employed or unemployed and those who are actively looking for employment as a per cent of the total population of the age 15 years and above. Before the demonetisation, Labour participation rate was around 47-48 per cent but fell sharply after it and has still not recovered.

As per the earlier reports carried by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), 1.5 million Indians lost jobs due to demonetisation in the month of January-April, 2017.

The current report says that the exodus of labours caused by demonetisation is now slowly improving. Labour participation has risen since its low in July 2017. As of October 2018, there were 29.5 million unemployed persons actively looking for jobs. This is much larger than the 21.6 million unemployed persons looking for jobs in October 2017, says CMIE report.

The unemployment rate will rise further if those who left labour markets due to demonetisation join back again.

Also Read: Unemployment At An All-Time High With 3.1 Crore Indians Without Job: Report