NEW DELHI: India’s jobless rate rose last month due to a hit to hiring activity from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unemployment in August rose to 8.32% from a four-month low of 6.95% in July, data from private research firm Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed on Wednesday.
A separate survey of factory managers by IHS Markit pointed to companies pausing hiring efforts amid a softer growth in sales during the month.
“There is some hesitancy in the growth and that’s the reason we see this fatigue in employment numbers,” CMIE managing director Mahesh Vyas said by phone. “We are still recovering from a sharp fall in employment.”
About a million jobs were lost last month, according to CMIE data, which is based on surveys, and is widely accepted in the absence of timely government data.
The job losses were relatively low when compared with April when more than seven million jobs were lost amid the second virus wave.
India typically adds more than one million people to its work force every month.
