18.9 million salaried Indians lost their jobs since April

A new report has revealed that 18.9 million Indians lost their job between April to July this year, with 5 million of these jobs being shed off in July alone due to the coronavirus-related lockdowns.

The data, released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), was published as the Indian economy limps back to recovery from the COVID-19-induced measures.

The number of salaried individuals losing their jobs was the highest in April at 17 million (1.77 crore), followed by a relatively smaller number of 100,000 (1 lakh) jobs in May, CMIE reported.

Gains in farm jobs

Agricultural jobs, however, seem to be better off than jobs in business salaried classes and daily wage earners; gaining 14.9 million jobs in the same (April to July) period.

In June, 3.9 million (39 lakh) jobs were gained but about 50 lakh jobs lost in the following month of July.

ILO-ADB jobs report

Meanwhile, a report prepared jointly by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), states that as many as 4.1 million (41 lakh) youth in India lost jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Construction and farm sector workers account for the majority of job losses, the report stated.

“For India, the report estimates job loss for 4.1 million youth. Construction and agriculture have witnessed the major job losses among seven key sectors,” said the ILO-ADB report, titled ‘Tackling the COVID-19 yo youth employment crisis in Asia and the Pacific’.

Asia-Pacific

The young people’s employment prospects in Asia and the Pacific are severely challenged due to the pandemic, it added.

Youth (15-24 years) will be hit harder than adults (25 and older) in the immediate crisis and risk bearing higher longer-term economic and social costs, said the report.

The report is based on regional assessment of the “Global Survey on Youth and COVID-19” and arrived at estimates based on available unemployment data in different countries.

It said that in India, two-thirds of firm-level apprenticeships and three quarters of internships were completely interrupted during the pandemic.

The report calls on governments in the region to adopt urgent, large-scale and targeted measures to generate jobs for the youth, keep education and training on track, and to minimise future scarring of more than 660 million young people in the region.