In October 2022, India’s unemployment rate rose to 7.8 per cent from 6.4 per cent in September, revealed data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The CMIE data further reveals that the jobless rate in urban areas fell marginally from 7.7 per cent to 7.2 per cent but increased dramatically from 5.8 per cent to 8.04 per cent in rural India, indicating lower labour participation, reported news agency.
The rural unemployment rate in October 2021 and 2020 was 7.7 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively. It was 8.1 per cent in October 2019, prior to the pandemic. In October 2022, Haryana had the highest unemployment rate (31.8 per cent), followed by Rajasthan (30.7 per cent) and Jammu and Kashmir (22.4 per cent). The states that had the lowest jobless rates were Madhya Pradesh (0.8 per cent), Chhattisgarh (0.9 per cent), and Odisha (1.1 per cent).
The recruitment during the month showed a similar pattern, as the monthly Naukri Jobspeak index reveals that hiring slowed due to the holidays and remained stagnant compared to the previous year. The index is at its lowest point in 2022 (at 2,455). Nonetheless, the report indicates that it is still on an upward trend when compared to last year’s festive window in November.
News agency quoted Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com, Pawan Goyal as saying, “The temporary deceleration in hiring activity was expected given the festive season, however when you compare the data with last year’s festive window (November 2021), the index is a healthy 13 per cent ahead which is reassuring.” He also stated, it is worth noting that most large industries maintained hiring expansion during this month, which is likely to continue as the year ends.
The hiring in Kolkata and Mumbai increased whereas in Delhi, it stayed steady compared to October of last year. As the IT sector slowed, recruitment in tech hubs Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Pune slowed as well.
As per the Naukri.com report, the insurance sector in the country has continued to grow at a massive rate of 93 per cent because of an increase in demand for professionals across experience bands. Other industries that have seen an increase in recruitment include banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), oil, real estate, travel and hospitality, and automobiles.
The report suggested that hiring in the IT sector slowed down as there has been a drop of 18 per cent in October compared to the same month last year. Besides IT, sectors like telecom and healthcare saw a significant drop from a recruitment viewpoint.