Amid COVID-19, India’s Unemployment Rate Soars to 27.11%: CMIE

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(Photo: Rhythum Seth/The Quint)

According to the latest data shared by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the COVID-19 crisis has led to a spike in the country's unemployment rate to 27.11% for the week ending 3 May, PTI reported.

Unemployment levels were at just under 7% before the pandemic crisis in mid-March, the data noted.

Further, the study noted that unemployment was the highest in urban areas at 29.22%, primarily in the red zones compared to rural unemployment which was at 26.69%.

As per the CMIE data, the monthly unemployment rate in April stood at 23.52%, up from March’s 8.74%.

The data pointed to a steady rise in unemployment since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, with the week ending 29 March showing the sharpest hike of 23.81%.

As of the end of April, the highest unemployment was seen in Puducherry which had 75.8% unemployment, followed by Tamil Nadu at 49.8%, Jharkhand at 47.1% and Bihar at 46.6%.

The unemployment in states like Maharashtra was 20.9%, while the rate in unemployment in Haryana stood at 43.2%, Uttar Pradesh is at 21.5% and Karnataka’s unemployment was at 29.8%.

Hilly states had the lowest incidence of unemployment as of April, the think tank reportedly said.

(With inputs from PTI)