Of the 1.75 lakh people who were polled across India, 42% of them said their incomes remained the same as it was a year back. Inflation adjusted, that is a actually drop in their household income. Around 55% of households said their incomes have dropped compared to the previous year and only 3% of Indian households reported an increase in their earnings.
The results were part of a survey conducted by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a think tank which is working closely with the Indian Government. Over 10 million Indians have lost jobs due to the dreaded second wave of the covid-19pandemic, said Mahesh Vyas, Chief Executive, CMIE.
The unemployment rate during May 2021 as measured by the think-tank is around 12%, which was 8% in April 2021. Vyas feels a 3% unemployment rate is acceptable for the size of the Indian Economy. He also said that the unemployment will slowly pick up once the second wave subsides, signs of which are already seen during the later half of May 2021.
Most of the job losses were that of unskilled labour which is expected to bounce back as fast, due to the nature of their jobs. However, it is the semi-skilled jobs which are hard to be replaced and may take up to one year for such people to find a more relevant and suitable job.
