Author: Mahima Yadav
Author Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi.
Abstract: This paper attempts to understand the effect of the COVID-19 shock on the unemployability of the labour workforce and professionals in India. This pandemic is like a wildfire wherein all global economies faced the heat and many got burned with long-lasting scars and denting domestic demand and supply, trade, and finance. India’s per capita income for 2020 is 135,000 leaving many crippled and tipping millions of people into poverty this year. My writing is an attempt to peep into the effects of a pandemic on the labour market and to understand the uneven effects on various sectors. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (2018-19) it is noticeable that 24% of the workforce is engaged in regular salaried jobs with a steady flow of income. However out of this category only 2.2% work with a written job contract for more than three years having access to social security benefits. It is therefore likely under COVID situation that the major chunk of the labour force is likely to face the brunt of income and job loss in the near future. Further, we will witness the situation getting worse for the informal workers in comparison to the formal sectors. The article too seeks to investigate the direct income support programmes to informal workers during pandemic while focusing on the growing question of youth unemployment .
Keywords: Employment, Unemployment Rate, Regular Wage, Salaried, Casual Employment.