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COVID-19 lockdown impact: 5 million salaried Indians lost their jobs in July, show data

The coronavirus infected over 2.7 million people in the country, hitting the economic activity. Photo: iStock

1 min read . Updated: 18 Aug 2020, 06:12 PM IST Written By Anulekha Ray

'While salaried jobs are not lost easily, once lost they are also far more difficult to retrieve,' according to CMIE report
Salaried jobs were nearly 19 million short of their average in 2019-20, showed CMIE data

Five million salaried people lost their jobs in July, the Centre for Monitoring India Economy said. "17.7 million salaried jobs were lost in April 2020. An additional 0.1 million jobs were lost in May. Then, 3.9 million jobs were gained in June. But, 5 million jobs were lost in July," the CMIE data showed.

"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," CMIE data showed, adding that ballooning numbers of job losses among salaried class is a source of worry.

"While salaried jobs are not lost easily, once lost they are also far more difficult to retrieve," CMIE mentioned. Only 21% of all employment in India is in the form of a salaried employment who are more resilient to economic shocks, the think-tank said. Salaried jobs were nearly 19 million short of their average in 2019-20.

The coronavirus infected over 2.7 million people in the country, hitting the economic activity. The CMIE earlier estimated 121.5 million jobs were lost due to COVID-19 lockdown in April. This loss narrowed down to 100.3 million in May and then 29.9 million in June, the CMIE data showed. In July, 11 million people lost their jobs, according to CMIE.

Small traders, hawkers and daily wage labourers were the worst hit by the lockdown in April. "Of the 121.5 million jobs lost in that month, 91.2 million were among these. This category of employment accounted for about 32 per cent of the total employment but, it suffered 75 per cent of the hit in April," CMIE data showed.

As the nation had started opening in a phased manner from June, the jobs came back. But the recovery was largely in informal jobs. "Of the 91.2 million such jobs lost in April, 14.4 million came back in May, 44.5 million in June and 25.5 million in July. Only 6.8 million remain to return," CMIE said.

However, job losses among salaried people accounted for only 15% of all job losses in April, according to CMIE. "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," the CMIE data mentioned.