Employment recovery for salaried class excruciatingly slow: CMIE

The recovery in employment after the pandemic-induced disruptions has been uneven, with job losses being concentrated among salaried employees and entrepreneurs, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

Employment in August 2021 was 5.7 million lower than it was in 2019-20, CMIE's MD and CEO Mahesh Vyas said in his analysis.

This involved an 8.8 million loss of salaried jobs and 2 million loss of employment for entrepreneurs, which were partially offset by a 4.7 million increase in employment in farming and 0.7 million increase in jobs as daily wage workers and small traders.

The recovery seems to have discriminated against salaried employees and entrepreneurs, it added.

In the analysis, Vyas further explained that even as the recovery in salaried jobs was not impacted by the second COVID-19 wave, it was excruciatingly slow.

Meanwhile, it said the labour market recovery is highly skewed in favour of the rural segment.

Of the 5.7 million jobs lost between 2019-20 and August 2021, 3.7 million were in urban India.

Urban India accounts for 32 per cent of all jobs but it suffered 65 per cent of the job losses following the pandemic, it stated.

Rural India has done much better, as it lost only 1.9 million jobs. It has mainly been saved by the agricultural sector.

Data available for the first three weeks of September show that labour market indicators are improving and the labour participation rate is stable.

However, this expected improvement in September is likely to be small and is unlikely to move the needle much as the recovery is still incomplete and seems exhausted, it added.