97pc of Indian Households' Incomes Declined in Corona Second Wave: CMIE

It is not just about the cases when we talk about the pandemic. It is also about the individuals and families that suffered in this time. There is not a single household in India, that did not get affected by Covid19, be it by family members testing positive or being hit financially.

Only looking at the second wave, in this short time as well, over 10 million Indians lost their jobs. The income level in almost 97 per cent of the households has declined since the first outbreak. Chief Executive of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Mahesh Vyas shared this data recently.

The unemployment rate has increased not just from last year to this year but from April 2021 to May 2021. As we said that over 10 million people have lost their jobs in the second wave itself, the overall number since the beginning can be between 10 million to 1 crore.

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Mr. Vyas further shared that this problem can be solved step by step. Everything cannot go back to normal in an instant. In fact, there is no going back to initial lives but economically speaking, we can see the development over time. As the economy starts shifting again, we can expect to see some changes.

The reason behind a high rate of unemployment is that those who lost their jobs do not find a new one easily. Many companies did a cut down on the employees as they could not bear paying everyone’s salaries in this difficult time. Most of the companies did not hire anyone for a long time. Now, openings are coming up slowly. But for the proper better quality jobs and formal jobs to come back, it will take some more time.

As many of the states, well, the entirety of India we can say went for a lockdown in April-May this year, the unemployment rate also increased. But the highest was in May 2020 when India was under national lockdown. During May last year, it was 23.5 per cent.

Talking about the unemployment rate, Vyas explained that the normal rate for India is generally 3 to 4 per cent. That number is fine for the Indian economy. He said that it is going to take a long time before the unemployment percentage decreases.