One year since COVID-19 lockdown: India still recovering from unemployment blow

India is still not out of the woods as far as unemployment is concerned after a year when the lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of deadly COVID19 on March 25 last year as pandemicinduced job loss has not tapered off consistentlyThe government had imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of the pandemic but this impacted economic and commercial activities and resulted in job loss and later on the exodus of migrant workers which rocked the entire nation According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy CMIE data the unemployment rate was recorded at 69 per cent in February 2021 which is slightly better than 78 per cent in the same month last year and 88 per cent in March 2020 during which lockdown was imposedThe data showed that the unemployment rate had peaked to 235 per cent in April and remained at 217 per cent in May It started tapering off from June onward when it was recorded at 102 per cent in the month and further improved to 74 per cent in July However the unemployment rate again rose slightly to 83 in August and improved to 67 per cent in September last year as per CMIE data In October unemployment again rose slightly to 7 per cent and then eased to 65 per cent in November last year as per the dataThe CMIE data showed that the unemployment rate had risen to 91 per cent in December 2020 and improved in January to 65 per cent Experts said that the CMIE data indicated improvement in the unemployment scenario from July onwards but there is a need for consistency which would only come after an increase in buoyancy in the manufacturing and services sectorsThey were of the view that the farm sector has done well which engages over 55 per cent of the countrys population but there is a need for improvement in hiring in urban and industrial areas They opined that the government has taken many steps to boost fresh hiring in the country but repeated policy interventions and monitoring of existing schemes and initiatives at the ground level are required to achieve consistent improvement in the employment scenario in the countryAccording to labour ministry data around 165 lakh people have benefited from the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana ABRY which was launched in October to encourage hiring in the country amid the COVID19 pandemic till March 9 2021 The scheme was introduced on October 1 2020 to incentivise the creation of new employment along with social security benefits and restoration of loss of employment during the pandemicThis scheme being implemented through the Employees Provident Fund Organisation EPFO reduces the financial burden of the employers of various sectors industries and encourages them to hire more workers Under the ABRY Government of India is crediting for a period of two years both the employees share 12 per cent of wages and employers share 12 per cent of wages of contribution payableUnder the ABRY about 165 lakhs beneficiaries registered themselves with the Scheme from October 1 2020 and out of this approximately 1364 lakhs are new joinees with UAN universal account number generated on or after October 1 2020 and approximately 286 lakhs are rejoinees who were rendered unemployed during the pandemic from March 1 2020 to September 30 2020 and rejoined from October 1 2020 onwards The experts said that the government intends to create 50 lakh to 60 lakh jobs through the ABRY in two years time but it required close monitoring and wellplanned implementation to achieve the desired objectiveUnder Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana PMGKY Government of India has contributed both 12 per cent employers share and 12 per cent employees share under Employees Provident Fund EPF totaling 24 per cent of the wage for the wage month from March to August 2020 for the establishments having up to 100 employees with 90 per cent of such employees earning less than Rs 15000 Under the PMGKY scheme Rs 256766 crore was credited in EPF accounts of 3882 lakhs eligible employeesThe recently released latest EPFO payroll data showed that net new enrolments with the retirement fund body grew about 28 per cent to 1336 lakh in January compared to the same month in 2020 The data also reflected a growth of 24 per cent for January 2021 over December last year The EPFO has added around 6249 lakh subscribers during the first ten months of the ongoing fiscal year the data showed During 201920 the number of net new subscribers rose to 7858 lakh as compared to 6112 lakh in the preceding fiscal The EPFO payroll data also gives a perspective about the employment scenario in the countryThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever