50 Lakh Salaried Jobs Lost In July, Nearly 2 Crore Since April: Think-Tank

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) said in a report released earlier this month. Even as the data showed 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 1.77 crore salaried jobs were lost in April, the first full month that witnessed the coronavirus-induced lockdown. While the sector added 40 lakh jobs in May and June, it saw losses 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," Mahesh Vyas wrote in the report.

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 reverse migration of people.

Citing concerns over the loss of jobs in the salaried segment, the CMIE report said 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.

Salaried jobs are "far more difficult to retrieve", suggesting a more long-standing decline in the number of salaried jobs available, the report added.