Covid-19 has derailed the economy and along with it has left a trail of devastation on the employment front. A study by reputed think-tank CMIE showed unemployment rate in March at a 43-month high of 8.7 per cent.

Another indicator by web portal Naukri showed hiring activity declining 18 per cent for the month.

Unemployment rate month-on month March rose 98 basis points from February. In January, the rate of jobless was 7.16 per cent. But more than the overall March data, the CMIE figures for the last week of the month reflect the ravages of the virus-induced lockdown on the economy.

Unemployment rate in the last week flared up to 23.8 per cent albeit on a smaller sample size as data collection got truncated by the lockdown.

The CMIE said unemployment during the last week was 23.8 per cent —and it stood almost the same at 23.4 per cent in the first week of April.

Hiring trend

Hiring activity during March has declined 18 per cent compared with the same month in 2019 following the nationwide lockdown to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, with major impact in cities such as Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad, according to Naukri JobSpeak Index.

The hiring activities showed early signs of slowdown from January where the index grew only 5.75 per cent followed by no growth in February. The index for March stood at 1,954, a decline of 18 per cent in hiring activity compared with March 2019 at 2,378. The Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly index based on the job listings on Naukri.com.

The decline in hiring is led by hotels, restaurants, travel, airlines (56 per cent), retail (50 per cent), auto (38 per cent) and pharma (26 per cent).