Job losses in India after Covid: Employees in southern states most concerned

There's no prize for guessing that it's the low income group that has been the most concerned about the coronavirus outbreak in the country, but what may interest you is that among all the four regions of India, its the south of Vindhya that has most people freaking out over the prospect of job losses due to Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing nationwide lockdown, according to the latest IANS-CVoter Economy Battery survey.

When asked, "How concerned are you that you or someone in your household who is currently employed will lose his/her job because of the coronavirus outbreak", 49.0 per cent from South India said they are very concerned while 33.3 per cent, 35.5 per cent and 33.2 per cent said the same from East, North and West India, respectively.

Even among people in the job within their households, 76.8 per cent from South India responded by saying they are concerned about losing their jobs, 65.7 per cent, 72.5 per cent and 63.6 per cent said the same from East, North and West India, respectively.

Among the pay grade strata, 43.0 per cent belonging to the low income groups said they are very concerned that they may end up losing their jobs. From the middle income groups, 38.3 per cent, and 16 per cent from the high income groups said they are "very concerned" about losing their jobs.

Among the people in job within their concerned households, when asked to choose between 'concerned' or 'not concerned', 75. per cent from the lower income groups said they are indeed concerned. However, that number fell to 67.5 per cent when it came to MIG and further lower to 55.2 per cent in the HIG category.

Women are more worked up than their male counterparts with the prospect of losing their jobs. As many as 41.0 per cent of women said they are very concerned while 34.1 per cent men said the same. A total of 22.6 per cent men said they are not at all concerned while just 18.9 per cent women said the same.

Religious wise, Sikhs seem to be the most concerned, as 59.1 per cent of them said they are way too perturbed at the thought of losing their jobs, while 48.3 per cent Christians, 38 per cent Muslims and 32.8 per cent upper caste Hindus said the same. The most comfortably placed, or so it seems, are those from the Scheduled Tribes as 21.3 per cent of them said they are "very concerned" that the pandemic may cost them their jobs.