1.89 crore salaried Indians lost jobs since COVID-19 lockdown, says CMIE

According to data released by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a total of 1.89 crore salaried people have lost their jobs in India since April. A well as, the CMIE also says that, around 50 lakh jobs in July comes after around 39 lakh jobs were gained in June. In April, 1.77 crore salaried jobs were lost, followed by 1 lakh job losses of salaried employees in May.

“While salaried jobs are not lost easily, once lost, they are also far more difficult to retrieve. Therefore, their ballooning numbers are a source of worry,” the centre`s CEO Mahesh Vyas said.

“Salaried jobs were nearly 19 million (190 lakh) short of their average in 2019-20. They were 22 per cent lower than their level in the last fiscal year,” he added.

The latest CMIE data also showed that around 68 lakh daily wage earners lost their jobs during this period. However, around 1.49 crore people took to farming during this period.

Since the lockdown was announced, several companies across sectors have taken to job cuts, along with salary reductions and leave without pay.

Industry bodies and several economists have called for government support to industry to avoid mass job losses and for the companies to survive the onslaught of the pandemic.