23.4% rise in unemployment rate due to lockdown

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s weekly tracker survey revealed that urban unemployment rate soared to 30.9% , while overall unemployment rose to 23.4%. Interestingly, unemployment shot up significantly from 8.4% in mid-March to the current 23%. It is estimated that around 50 million people might have lost jobs in just two weeks of the lockdown. “Since some may have just been sent home for now, the actual scope of unemployment may be even higher and may show up a little later,” observed Pronab Sen, a former chief statistician of India.

Other economies ravaged by covid-19, too have been gripped by rampant job losses in the face of the pandemic. Fir example, about 10 million US workers filed unemployment claims in the past fortnight. Experts opine that this trend is  likely to persist even after the lockdown is lifted. 

The latest round of the survey is based on the study of 9000 participants. The  government,  however, remains skeptical about its methodology.