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J&K’s unemployment rises to 11.4%; 75 lakh jobs lost nationally in April

Ziraat Times Team Report

Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmir’s unemployment rate has risen to 11.4% in April, as against the national average of 8%, according to the latest data released by the Centre for the Monitoring of the Indian Economy (CMIE). Moreover, during April, 75 lakh people have lost jobs as a result of the lockdowns, CMIE data released on Tuesday reveals.

J&K’s unemployment rate was reported to be 9.5 per cent in March 2021.

Officials involved with data collection and analysis related to Jammu & Kashmir told Ziraat Times that employment situation in J&K since January 2020 only looked better in the months of July and August in 2020, when the state reported 10.9 per cent and 11.1 per cent unemployment rates respectively.

Since January 2020, J&K’s unemployment rate has hovered between 21.1 % and 10.9 %.

“The months of July and August were the months when there was some semblance of normality in the economy after months of acute disruption”, officials said.

Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 Jul 2020 Aug 2020 Sep 2020 Oct 2020 Nov 2020 Dec 2020 Jan 2021 Feb 2021 Mar 2021 Apr 2021
21.1 20.8 15.5 NA 18.7 17.9 10.9 11.1 16.2 16.1 8.6 16.6 21.9 14.2 9.5 11.4

Table compiled by Ziraat Times from the data sourced from the CMIE

However, economic experts in J&K often express their skepticism about the accuracy of this data and the methodology adopted in estimating J&K’s unemployment rate. Experts’ contention is that J&K’s current unemployment rate is much higher than reported in the CMIE data, and emphasize on the need for strengthening data collection and interpretation methodologies.

Meanwhile, experts have attributed the latest increase in unemployment to the Covid-induced lockdowns and restrictions on mobility that have now pushed India’s unemployment rate to a four-month high of 7.97% in April compared with 6.5% in March, 6.89% in February and 6.52% in January this year.

The spike in the unemployment rate was seen both in urban and rural areas. While the unemployment rate in urban areas was at 9.78%, the highest in eight months, in rural areas, it was 7.13%, a four-month high.

 

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