The unemployment rate in the country rose to 6.9 percent in October – the highest in the last two years – according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Further, the labour participation rate, which is the adult population willing to work, was recorded at 42.4 percent in October, which is the lowest since January 2016.
“Labour participation rate was of the order of 47-48 percent before demonetisation. But, it fell sharply after demonetisation and it has still not recovered. We did see this proportion rise in September but that increase was negated in October.”Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy
The estimated number of people employed during October 2018 stood at 397 million. This was lower than that of 407 million in October 2017.
According to CMIE, only 39.5 percent of the adult population was employed in October.
MORE PEOPLE LOOKING FOR JOBS
According to the report, as of October 2018, 29.5 million unemployed persons have been actively looking for jobs, which is much higher than the 21.6 million unemployed people looking for jobs during the same time last year.
What is the reason for this increase? “This partly reflects the return of labour to the labour markets after their exodus post demonetisation,” the report says.
“The number of unemployed was of the order of 40 million before demonetisation hit the labour markets severely. People did not lose jobs but, jobs did not increase and the unemployed who were actively looking for jobs gave up hopes of finding jobs.”Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy
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