Over 40 Lakh Youth Lost Jobs Due to COVID-19 in India: Report

The report by ILO & ADB says those who are between 15 and 24 years of age will be hit harder than adults above 25.

(Photo: Shriti Mathur/The Quint)

As many as 41 lakh youths in India lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of whom worked in farming and construction, a joint report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) shows.

The report titled ‘Tackling the COVID-19 Youth Employment Crisis in Asia and the Pacific’ released on 18 August, warns against the creation of a doomed “lockdown generation”, news agency PTI reported.

The report is based on regional assessment of the “Global Survey on Youth and COVID-19” and arrived at estimates based on available unemployment data in different countries.

3 Ways in Which Young People Have Been Affected

Speaking of prospects of employment in Asia and the Pacific, the report says it is severely challenged. It states that those between 15 and 24 years of age will be hit harder than adults above 25 years. Further, two-thirds of firm-level apprenticeships and three-quarters of internships were completely interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

According to ILO-ADB, young people have been affected in three ways:

First, job disruptions in the form of reduced working hours and earnings, including job losses for both paid workers and the self-employed. Second, interruptions in their education and training. And third, difficulties in transitioning from school to work, and moving between jobs during this time.

What Govts Must Do for the Youth

Speaking about what must be done to alleviate this problem, the report calls upon governments of Asia and the Pacific to adopt urgent, large-scale and targeted measures to generate jobs for youths – with a focus on education and training.

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the youth of Asia and the Pacific had been facing challenges in the labour market, leading to high unemployment rates and large shares of youths being excluded from both school and work, the report says.

“The pre-crisis challenges for youth are now amplified since COVID-19 hit. Without sufficient attention, our fear is that this risks creating a ‘lockdown generation’ that could feel the weight of this crisis for many years to come,” said Sara Elder, lead author of the report and head of the ILO Regional Economic and Social Analysis unit, according to PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)