According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s unemployment rate rose to 7.8% in March 2023, a three-month peak and a sign that the labour market is becoming less favourable.
The nation’s unemployment percentage increased in December 2022 to 8.30% before falling to 7.14% in January 2023. The CMIE statistics revealed on Saturday, April 1st 2022, indicated that it increased marginally once more in February to 7.45%.
According to the statistics provided by the CMIE, the unemployment rate in India’s urban regions in March was 8.4%, while it was 7.5% in rural areas. This means more urban job seekers cannot find employment that suits their requirements. The average unemployment rate was 7.7% on April 1st 2023.
In the financial year (FY) 2022-23, the average national unemployment rate was 7.58%. Although there were no more Covid-19-related restrictions in FY 2022-23, unlike its preceding two FYs, urban unemployment was higher than rural unemployment. The CMIE data showed that the average urban unemployment in FY 2022-23 was 8.47% vis-Ã -vis 7.17% rural unemployment.
CMIE’s managing director Mahesh Vyas was quoted by news agency PTI saying that the Indian labour market worsened in March 2023 as it rose by 3 percentage points from 7.5% in February to 7.8%, while, simultaneously, the workforce participation rate fell slightly by 0.1 percentage point from 39.9% in February 2023 to 39.8% in March, which has impacted the overall unemployment scenario.
According to the CMIE managing director, the employment rate in India fell from 36.9% in February 2023 to 36.7% in March because of deteriorating labour market circumstances. Additionally, during this period, there was a drop in the number of working individuals, from 409.9m to 407.6m.
Haryana had the highest jobless rate at 26.8% in March. Following closely behind were Rajasthan (26.4%), Jammu and Kashmir (23.1%), Sikkim (20.7%), Bihar (17.6%), and Jharkhand (17.5%).
Although the CMIE publishes private statistics on unemployment regularly, the Government of India doesn’t recognise this firm’s data.
