What is the Employment Situation in India due to COVID-19?
Introduction:
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the job crisis at a higher level in India. Unemployment has always been an existing problem in India, and this pandemic has made it worst. This is one of the worst crises the world has ever faced. India is being hit by massive unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for many industries, the worst is yet to arrive. Almost every sector was affected by the pandemic, whether Retail, Auto dealership, manufacturing, or else. The travel and tourism sector is one of the sectors that got the worst hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, where 38 out of 55 million employees lost their job, and it is hardly possible that things will improve soon for this sector. Moreover, 6 million employees lost their jobs in the retail sector, 3 million in auto manufacturing, 7.3 million in restaurants, and many more counting.
Unemployment in India after the COVID-19 crisis:
Employment is affected globally, and India is one of the highest impacted countries. Some people think that it affected health on a world scale, but the reality is that many other things got more effect, and unemployment is one. India has faced a considerable rise in unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic, and still, there are low expectations to make things better again. It is not before the COVID-19 pandemic there were no issues of unemployment. The rate of unemployment is amplified after the pandemic, and the situation for the unemployed, especially youngsters, worsens compared to the prior situations.
There are many sectors in India where the unemployment rates are increased at a higher pace due to COVID-19, and things might get worse in the future. These sectors create most of the people’s jobs, but during and after the lockdown still, the businesses are not getting the pace as before. The sectors that are affected most of India’s employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic are the following:
Auto manufacturing:
In this sector, almost 55% of the employees are joined on a contract, which can be fired quickly, and due to the pandemic, 2-3 million out of 5 million pre-COVID employees lost their jobs. The demands of employees in this sector might remain low soon.
Organized and unorganized retail:
This sector had almost 46 million employees before the COVID-19 pandemic, which is remained only 40 million afterwards. This sector is expected to get on track soon, but many people are still not going to get their job back soon.
Auto dealership:
200,000 out of 4 million employees lost their job after the pandemic and still counted because the dealers are cutting jobs to cut business costs. The unemployment might get doubled, so improvement cannot be expected soon.
Media & Entertainment:
With the increased amount of online platforms and closed cinema theatres, the employees are losing their jobs at a higher rate. Near 1 million out of 6 million employees lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The government cannot take the risk to open the theatres, so there are high chances that things will get worst soon. Actors, models, spot boy, cameraman, sound artist, production designers, art designers, and many more professions are involved in this sector, and most of them lost their jobs.
Travel and Tourism:
This is the sector that makes a lot of revenue and got the worst hit because, in lockdown, almost everybody in this sector lost their job. The remaining people in the job are just managing their offices and tourist places. There are no expectations soon about any kind of improvement because nobody wants to risk their life by travelling to different places. Due to the impact of this sector, transport, retail, hotel, restaurants, and many other industries are also affected. Almost 38 out of 55 million of the employees lost their jobs in travel and tourism, and 10 million more jobs might get lost in the future.
Along with the companies of organizations and companies, many labourers lost their source of daily wages. These people do not have permanent jobs, and they have to find a new client daily. During the lockdown, these people had to go through a tremendous amount of difficulty just to arrange proper food and nutrition. So overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit India badly, and a smart decision making is needed central government and all the state governments.
Efforts being made for increasing Employment:
This COVID-19 crisis is not going to last forever; hence there is no need to get motivated, and soon the things are going to improve. Some job opportunities are being created by many sectors such as banking and finance, the IT sector, and EDTECH, where millions of jobs are being created. Many efforts are being made to resume the services that stopped due to the pandemic. For example, the cinema halls are soon expected to open with some rules and regulations like having half of the capacity. This will help keep the business life cycle of the industries, and the employment rate might increase significantly.
The government and many individual groups help the daily wage labourers by providing them with food and other resources. Many individuals help their employees by providing some amount of their salary, if not the same pay.
Conclusion:
All these unemployment numbers are one of the biggest concerns right now in India that requires attention on high priority because there will be a long term impact for sure. Unemployment not only deprives people of earning a living but also give rise to crime and theft. But with time, things might improve, especially after the vaccine of COVID-19. Still, until then, the government has to make maximum efforts to organize the best possible safety measures to resume the completely stopped industries. Hopefully, India will find its way out of the crisis and create job opportunities for the unemployed.