Mumbai, June 28: The HSBC bank recently warned of a recession in the United States this year and in Europe in 2024. With the news of recession likely to come in developed countries and layoffs taking place across the globe, there reportedly seems to be some not-so-good news for India. According to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in the country fell to 7.7 percent in May 2023.

The CMIE, a private economic think tank cited the decline in labour participation for the unemployment rate decreasing in India. CMIE's Natasha Somayya K said that the unemployment rate in the country among people aged 15 years and above fell to 7.7 per cent in May 2023 This is a decent decline when compared to the 8.5 percent unemployment rate in the month of April 2023. Countries With Most Nuclear Weapons List 2023: Russia, US and China Top 3 Nations With Highest Number of Nuclear Weapons, Know How Many Nuclear Warheads India and Pakistan Have.

What Is the Unemployment Rate?

It is of uttermost importance to understand what does unemployment rate mean. The unemployment rate or joblessness is usually defined as the percentage of unemployed persons i.e. those who are not working or are not part of the labour force. In simple terms, the unemployment rate can be understood as the percentage of the total number of the labour force that is unemployed or unhired but is actively seeking jobs and is willing to work.

India's Unemployment Rate in the Last Six Months:

In May, the unemployment rate in the county fell to 7.7 percent as compared to 8.5 percent in April. The fall in the unemployment rate broke the upward trend of the metric recorded in the first four months of 2023 i.e. from January to April 2023. From January to March 2023, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above was 6.8 percent which rose to 8.5 percent in April 2023. However, the unemployment rate of May 2023 shows a fall of 0.8 percent.

Reasons for Unemployment or Joblessness in India:

As per the CMIE data, the joblessness rate in the country fell due to the fall in the labour participation rate. So what is the labour participation rate? Simply put, the labour participation rate means a fall in the number of people who entered the labour market in search of jobs. In other words, there has been a decrease in the number of people who are looking out for new jobs or work opportunities. The data also revealed that the labour force in May stood at 441.9 million as compared to 453.5 million in April. Military Strength Ranking 2023: India Among Top 5 Countries With Highest Firepower in the World, Here's Where Pakistan, China and Other Nations Stand on the List.

Notably, the highlight of the CMIE data was the fact that jobs in urban areas across the country declined by around 2.4 million. Natasha Somayya K said that the labour market in India's urban areas saw a dip in the number of employed as well as unemployed people. Besides, the strength of the urban labour force also fell from 147 million in April to 142.5 million in May. The urban labour force saw 4.5 million fewer people due to two reasons - a decline in jobs by around 2.4 million and a fall in the number of unemployed people in urban India by 2.1 million.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 28, 2023 06:45 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).