Unemployment crisis: Over 60 lakh white collar professional jobs lost during May-August

New Delhi, 18-Sep-2020

India�s formal sector unemployment has been rising sharply ever since a strict lockdown was imposed in the country towards the end of March. The 20th wave of CMIE�s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS) has now revealed that nearly 6.6 million or 66 lakh white collar professionals (WCP) lost jobs between May and August. White collar professionals like software engineers, physicians, teachers, accountants and analysts have suffered the biggest job loss among all salaried employees affected by the pandemic, according to the survey. CMIE clarified that WCPs do not include qualified self-employed professional entrepreneurs. Employment among such professionals peaked in India during May-August 2019 at 18.8 million or 1.88 crore. The number gradually fell to 18.1 million or 1.81 crore in January-April 2020. However, the latest wave of the survey revealed that employment among WCPs during May-August 2020 fell to 12.2 million. The survey noted that this is the biggest fall in employment for WCPs since 2016. It is worth mentioning that an estimated 12.5 million white-collar professional employees were employed during the wave of January-April 2016. �All the gains made in their employment over the past four years were washed away during the lockdown,� the CMIE survey noted. �Compared to a year ago, employment among the white collar professional employees was down by 6.6 million. This was the biggest year-on-year loss among all salaried employees,� it added. The survey added that industrial workers also suffered severely during the months of strict lockdown. In fact, the biggest loss of employment was seen among industrial workers after WCPs. �The next biggest loss was among industrial workers. By a similar y-o-y comparison, they lost 5 million employees. This translates into a 26 per cent fall in employment among industrial workers over a year,� CMIE said. The CMIE survey said that the decline in industrial workers is likely to be largely in the smaller industrial units, indicating the impact of lockdown on micro, small and medium industrial units. CMIE had earlier said that the months of lockdown and the rising economic stress has severely impacted salaried employment in the country. According to the Mumbai-based economic think tank, 21 million or 2.1 crore salaried employees have lost jobs during the April-August period.