The unemployment rate for people aged 15 and above in urban areas fell to 12.6% in April-June 2021, down from 20.8 percent in the same month the previous year, according to a quarterly labour force survey conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
The unemployment rate (UR) is the percentage of people who are unemployed in the labour force. Joblessness was high in April-June 2020, owing to the impact of the country's lockdown restrictions, which were established to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
As per the 11th Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the unemployment rate for people aged 15 and above in metropolitan areas was 9.3% in January-March 2021.
It also showed that unemployment rate among females (age 15 years and above) in urban areas also declined to 14.3 per cent in April-June 2021 from 21.1 per cent a year ago. It was 11.8 per cent in January-March 2021. Among males, the UR in urban area also dipped to 12.2 per cent in April-June 2021 compared to 20.7 per cent a year ago. It was 8.6 per cent in January-March 2021.
Labour force participation rate in CWS (current weekly status) in urban areas for persons of 15 years of age and above was 46.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2021, up from from 45.9 per cent in the same period a year ago. It was 47.5 per cent in January-March 2021.
Labour force refers to the part of the population which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities for the production of goods and services and therefore, includes both employed and unemployed persons.
NSO launched PLFS in April 2017. On the basis of PLFS, a quarterly bulletin is brought out giving estimates of labour force indicators namely UR, Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), distribution of workers by broad status in employment and industry of work in Current Weekly Status (CWS).
The estimates of unemployed persons in CWS give an average picture of unemployment in a short period of seven days during the survey period. In the CWS approach, a person is considered unemployed if he/she did not work even for one hour on any day during the week but sought or was available for work at least for one hour on any day during the period
Lost Tourism Jobs
Around 21.5 million people, involved in the tourism industry, have lost their jobs due to the three waves of Covid-19 that first hit the country in early 2020, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said on Monday. Reddy said tourist arrivals in the country were down by 93 per cent during the first wave of Covid-19 outbreak, 79 per cent in the second wave and 64 per cent during the third wave.
“We have conducted a study on the impact of the pandemic on tourism. As per the study, there were 14.5 million job losses during the first wave, 5.2 million job losses in the second wave and 1.8 million job losses in the third wave,” he said in Lok Sabha during Question Hour.
