NEW DELHI: India's unemployment rate is shooting up in the midst of a nationwide lockdown which was imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of novel coronavirus. Nearly 50 million Indians may have lost jobs in the last two weeks, says Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reports.

According to monthly figures released by CMIE, the unemployment rate among the urban uneducated, for instance, shot up from 0.9% in January to 18.7% in March.

Reports also say that, in urban India, unemployment among the uneducated is at a higher level than those with a graduate degree.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) said in a report that the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting 2.7 billion workers globally due to lockdowns.

COVID-19 is already affecting tens of millions of informal workers. In India, Nigeria and Brazil, the number of workers in the informal economy affected by the lockdown and other containment measures is substantial.

In India, with a share of almost 90 per cent of people working in the informal economy, about 400 million workers or 40 crore in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis. (Inputs From IANS and LiveMint)

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