Unemployment soars again in J&K: 22.5 percent

Unemployment soars again in J&K: 22.5 percent

Srinagar: The employment avenues which had begun to get better in Jammu and Kashmir with the easing of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, are still in terrible shape. An unemployment rate of 22.2 percent for the month of October, highest among all states and union territories of the country, almost double than what it was in June, has been recorded in J&K.
A survey done by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), which has India’s largest database on the financial performance of companies, has found that JK had a 10.6 percent unemployment rate in June, which is half of what the CMIE found in January this year.
The unemployment rate of 21.9 percent in January fell to 14.2 in February, 11.4 in April, and 12.1 percent in May in J&K, it reported.
But now in October, the CMIE has reported a 22.2 percent unemployment rate, which is way higher than the national-level unemployment rate of 7.1 percent.
The unemployment rates are assessed by CMIE using its Consumer Pyramids Household Survey machinery. CMIE has pegged India’s unemployment rate at 7.1 percent which means J&K has much higher unemployment rate than the national average.
By the government’s own figures, there are more than three lakh unemployed educated youth in JK. The region’s high unemployment is seen largely due to the repeated lockdowns since 2019. It has made the economy suffer lose more than Rs 50,000 crore since August 2019, as per the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry figures, causing business units to shut down, or squeeze their business activity, leading to layoffs.
Post the 2019 lockdown, as per KCCI, more than five lakh jobs were lost in Kashmir region due to the shut economy.

 

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