The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has revealed that there has been a rise in rural unemployment rate by 190 basis points, which has taken it to 87 per cent. This has naturally resulted in a spike in the overall unemployment rate of India, which stands at 8.67 per cent as on August 9, which is the highest in the past five weeks.
In the urban areas, unemployment rate rose from 8.73 per cent to 9.31 per cent. The employment rate dropped from 37.6 per cent in July, to 37.09% for the week ended August 9. The employment rates for the months of April, May and June were, 27.2 per cent, 29.2 per cent and 35.9 per cent respectively.
India’s employment rate in March was 38.2 per cent, while in January, it was 39.8 per cent.
In July, the unemployment rate had come down temporarily due to the rural employment guarantee scheme — Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGS) — and due to a spurt in agricultural activity, mainly sowing.
In the urban areas, however, the unemployment rate has been consistently falling. It was 25.14per cent at the end of May, and fell to 7.19 per cent in the week ended August 2, before rising again slightly the following week, to 9.31 per cent.
Weekly surveys are carried out by CMIE covering about 10,900 households, which help estimate the unemployment rate on a weekly basis.
