Unemployment rate inches downwards in March, reveals CMIE data

Unemployment rate crept downwards to reach 6.52% in March from 6.90% in February, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The rural rate of unemployment stood at 6.19% while the urban figure was at 7.24% during the month.

In February, the unemployment rates in the rural and urban theatres were 6.86% and 6.99%, respectively.

The unemployment rates were sharply down from December levels when it rose to 9.06% — 9.15% in rural areas and 8.84% in urban areas.

Unemployment rose to its worst levels in April 2020, the first month of lockdown. While the rate stood at 23.52% for the country, in the rural areas it touched 22.89% and was at 24.95% for the urban areas. The lower figure for the rural areas were perhaps due to agriculture that was the least affected due to the lockdown.

In fact, agriculture was the only sector in the economy that recorded positive growth rates in all the first three quarters of FY21 for which figures have been reported so far.

In the unemployment data revealed by CMIE for March, the state with the highest rate was Haryana with 28.1%. The state with the lowest figure was Assam with 1.1%.

The states with unemployment rates between 1% and 2% were Karnataka (1.2%), Meghalaya (1.3%), Puducherry (1.4%) Madhya Pradesh (1.6%), Odisha (1.6%) and Sikkim (1.7%).

While many are apprehensive of a second wave of COVID in the country, almost all agencies, both Indian and foreign, have predicted that the Indian economy would grow by 10-12% in FY22.

After recording two successive quarters of contraction in Q1 and Q2, the economy returned to the growth path with 0.4% growth in Q3, with some of the sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and construction witnessing positive growth.

In some sectors of the economy such as information technology, the hiring outlook is bright with major companies announcing improved revenue forecasts and hiring plans.

Activities have begun in the labour intensive real estate sector too with most of the workers returning to the construction sites.