CMIE said job loss in salaried segment is a source of worry
As many as 50 lakh salaried people lost their livelihoods in the month of July, taking the total tally of those who lost jobs in the segment since April to 1.89 crore, private think tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data showed, in a report released earlier this month. Even as the data shows an overall improvement in the employment rate since April, CMIE flagged the issue of “ballooning numbers” of jobs lost in the salaried segment as a “source of worry”, terming the recovery in the job scenario as an “unhealthy” one.
CMIE said that in April, the first full month that witnessed the coronavirus-induced lockdown, 1.77 crore salaried jobs were lost. While the sector added 40 lakh jobs in May and June, it saw loss of another 50 lakh jobs in July. “On a net basis, the plight of salaried employees has worsened since the lockdown began. In April, they lost 17.7 million jobs. But by July, their losses had swelled to 18.9 million,” the report stated.
The report also showed that 1.5 crore jobs were added in the farming sector, however it clarified that there is no data to suggest that it indicates reverse migration of people.
Citing concerns over the loss of jobs in the salaried segment, the CMIE report said that these jobs are ” more resilient to economic shocks” and thus the recovery in overall employment rate is not a healthy one. “The recovery is largely in informal jobs. The situation has worsened for the relatively better jobs, i.e. salaried jobs. While jobs have recovered, this recovery has left out healthier, salaried jobs. In this sense it is an unhealthy recovery,” the report said.
It also added that the salaried jobs are “far more difficult to retrieve”, suggesting a more long-standing decline in the number of salaried jobs available.
