New Delhi: The unemployment rate in urban areas remains in two digits for the third consecutive quarter at 10.3% during October-December, higher than 7.8% a year ago, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic weighed on work, data Official.
However, it has slowed significantly from around 20.8% it is estimated that in April-June last year, when the national locking impact was at its peak, and 13.2% in the September-September quarter.
Pandemic has caused a loss of big work during last year’s lock.
Since the economic opening after the second wave earlier this year, the work situation has shown several improvements.
“The latest plf (periodic workforce survey) for Q3FY21 reveals a stable increase in the labor market, with the unemployment rate slowing to 10.3% in accordance with the current weekly status.
This is more than half the unemployment rate of Q1FY21 when the economy is in total locking, “Soumya Kanti Ghosh, head of the Group Economic Advisor at the Indian state bank.
“The level of labor participation, however, only increased slightly and still a problem,” he added.
The unemployment rate for women was higher at 13.1% during the October-December quarter compared to 9.5% for men.
The unemployment rate during the second quarter was 9.8% for women and 7.3% for men, according to the Quarterly Plf bulletin which was released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
The unemployment rate of young people (15-29 years) for three months to December was 24.9%, lower than 27.7% in the previous quarter and higher than 19.2% last year.
Jammu & Kashmir had the highest unemployment rate of 17.8% during the period, followed by Kerala at 16.7% and Jharkhand at 16%.
Gujarat has the lowest unemployment rate among countries at 4%, slower than 4.5% in the previous quarter.
Twelve countries recorded a two-digit unemployment rate during this period, compared to 22 countries in the April-June quarter of 2020.
Eight countries have recorded a double digit unemployment in the October 2019-20 quarter.
The Ministry of Finance has recently asked the Ministry of Statistics to place a quarterly labor data mechanism, which must be released by LAG a month to help in policy making.
At present, quarterly work data is equipped with a lag of about 45 days under the plf.
It began in 2017 to provide a better picture of labor scenarios.
But this is also considered inadequate because the lag time creates obstacles.
The PLF was launched by NSO to estimate the work and unemployment indicators (worker population ratios, the level of labor force and the unemployment rate) at a three-month short-term interval only for the current weekly status.
Under CWS, someone is considered unemployed in a week if he doesn’t work even for an hour every day during the reference week, but is sought or available to work for at least one hour every day for a week for a week, according to PLF.
The annual PLF report covers rural and urban areas while quarterly bulletins are for urban centers.