BENGALURU: The country’s unemployment rate in the quarter ending September 2022 dipped to 7.2% from 9.8% in the same quarter last year on the back of an uptick in economic activity. The unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above in urban areas in the previous quarter (April-June 2022) stood at 7.6%, data from the National Statistical Office’s (NSO) 16th Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) showed.
The unemployment rate in urban areas among females during the September quarter reduced to 9.4%, from 11.6% in the year-ago period. It was 9.5% in the previous quarter. The unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.
Among males, joblessness or unemployment rate in the September quarter dipped to 6.6% from 9.3% in the same quarter previous year. In July-September 2021, joblessness was high mainly due to the pandemic.
“The unemployment rate in India was always in the range of 5-6% for 2 decades, however, it spiked during the pandemic as many sectors like manufacturing, infrastructure, hospitality, automobile and insurance were unable to operate normally and struggled to run their businesses,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, MD and CEO of CIEL HR Services.
He added that many lost their jobs during the pandemic period and job creation was also low. “Many contractual workers faced the brunt. Now that the economy is slowly returning to normal, the unemployment rate is also decreasing. Many sectors like hospitality, manufacturing and automobile are performing a lot better at present when compared to the pandemic period,” he added. Also, the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in urban areas for persons of age 15 years and above stood at 47.9% in the September quarter from 47.5% in the previous quarter.