Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy has revealed that 27 million youth in the age group of 20-30 years has lost their jobs in April 2020 due to the nationwide lockdown in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
According to the CMIE weekly report, the unemployment rate declined from 27.1%to 24% for the week ended May 10 while the labour participation rate went-up from 36.2% to 37.6% as the centre reopens industries in a gradual manner. Employment rate also rose from 26.4%to 28.6%.
But, this category also accounted for 11 percent of those who lost jobs. 34.2 million of these young men and women were employed in 2019-20. In April 2020, their numbers slipped to 20.9 million. More than 13 million youngsters lost their jobs during the lockdown.
Another 14 million jobs were lost in the age-group 25-29 years. This loss again was disproportionately high. This group accounted for 11.1 per cent of total employment in 2019-20 but it accounted for 11.5 percent of the job losses.
Loss of Job losses have been registered across every age-group of 5 years. However, job losses are excessively high among the younger age groups. Collectively, 44 percent of those employed in 2019-20 were under 40 years of age. However, 52 percent of the job losses were reported among those who were below 40 years of age. On the contrary, while those of 40 years or more accounted for 56 percent of the total employed in 2019-20, they account for just 48 percent of the job losses.
Mahesh Vyas, Managing Director, CMIE said , “Job losses among the vulnerable are likely to raise the proportion of households in debt. It will also possibly raise debt delinquency. Job losses among the young population would have implications on savings. While households may well conserve cash during these times, the loss of jobs among the young deprives households of the extra cash that is mostly saved for either buying a house or durables or for retirement. This loss of savings will have long term implications.”
