India’s employment numbers are almost back at par with pre-lockdown levels after a sharp recovery in jobs since April. But most of the employment that has been restored is from the low-paying informal sector. As far as the better-paying jobs are concerned, the situation seems to be worsening.

According to Centre For Monitoring Indian Employment (CMIE) data, an estimated 121.5 million jobs were lost in April 2020. It recovered to 100.3 million in May and fell to 29.9 million in June.

July saw a further recovery in jobs and the number of jobs lost fell to 11 million. But there is a catch.

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Though job recovery has been impressive in the past three months, it does not signal at a speedy economic recovery as better-paying jobs have become scarce in the wake of the financial crisis triggered by coronavirus pandemic.

Mahesh Vyas, MD and CEO, CMIE, opined in a recent article that India’s job revival is worrisome because the key driver of the economy — salaried jobs — has not recovered yet at par with informal jobs.

Vyas said the plight of salaried employees has worsened since the lockdown began, In April, more than 17.7 billion salaried jobs were lost in the country and the figure had increased to nearly 19 million in July.

He explained that salaried jobs are not lost easily, but hard to retrieve one they are gone. “Therefore, their ballooning numbers are a source of worry,” he mentioned in his article.

It may be noted that salaried jobs were 22 per cent lower in July 2020 than the level observed in the last financial year.

This is worrisome as salaried jobs are a major economic driver in India and a lot of informal employment is directly dependent on them.

For instance, hawkers and traders who have resumed work are likely to see lower footfall due to lack of demand.

There are many other examples which show how heavily the informal sector depends on the formal economy. Therefore, Vyas concludes that India’s job recovery may be back at pre-lockdown levels but the revival of salaried jobs is worrisome and is likely to delay India’s overall economic recovery.

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