NEW DELHI: The urban unemployment rate in the country shot up to 20.9% in April-June 2020, the period of the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, latest official data showed.
The quarterly periodic labour survey (PLFS) showed the unemployment rate rose in the three months to June last year from 9.1% in the previous quarter (January-March quarter) and 8.9% recorded in the April-June period of 2019. The government had imposed one of the strictest lockdowns to stop the spread of the infection which hurt economic activity and led to job losses in key sectors such as hospitality, airlines, tourism and other segments of the services sector. The PLFS was launched by the National Statistical Office in April, 2017, to estimate the employment and unemployment indicators (worker population ratio, labour force participation rate, unemployment rate) in the short time interval of three months for urban areas only in the current weekly status. Under CWS, a person is considered as unemployed in a week if he/she did not work even for one hour on any day during the reference week but was available for work at least for one hour on any day during the reference week, according to the PLFS.