Amid socio-political turmoil, 2019 concludes with an all time low employment rate in India

Amid the socio-political turmoil, 2019 has concluded with an all-time low employment rate in India. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, CMIE has reported alarming rates of unemployment in the last 4 decades

The unemployment rate reached a record high of 9.1 per cent in December 2019 in urban India. After demonetisation in 2016, India saw drastic economic hustle, causing huge unemployment. More than 36 per cent (680,000) of registered companies in India have “closed” down in the last three years

Companies like Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland faced closedown. Passenger vehicle demand turned an all-time low in the last 18 years. Thousands of employees turned jobless in less than a year. Hundreds of startups had to be wrapped up in 2019 due to losses and a slow economy. Official survey says, more than 33% of India’s skilled youth is jobless.

Four out of 10 youth who received vocational training are out of the labour force. A significant chunk of those in the workforce remains unemployed. Indian economy declines from ‘Jobless to job-loss Growth’ in 2019. CMIE reveals an upward swing in unemployment since June 2017.

In the month of October, the unemployment rate touched a three-year high of 8.45% and is increasing thereafter. The urban unemployment rate stood at 8.89 per cent during the month of November 2019.

In November 2019, top 5 states/UTs with highest unemployment rates are Goa,(34.5%), Tripura (25.9%), Himachal Pradesh (23.3%), Haryana (20.7%) and Delhi (16%). Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have unemployment rates of 13.1% and 8.15%, respectively.

The states with the lowest unemployment rate in November are Puducherry (0.9%), Meghalaya (1.8%), Karnataka (2.2%), Tamil Nadu (2.5%) and Madhya Pradesh (3.6%).

Professionals continue to lose jobs and unemployment is rising alarmingly. India awaits employment and no more ‘pakoda’ politics.