The global recession is taking a heavy toll on India. About 5 lakh people lost jobs in the country between January and March 2009 due to the economic slowdown, a Labour Bureau report claims. Most jobs were lost in transport, metal and leather sectors.
Employment in select sectors such as gems and jewellery, textile and automobile grew in the period by about 2.5 lakh to little over 1.57 crore, but the overall figure remained lower than the 1.62 crore in September 2008.
The figures came up in a quick survey conducted by the bureau run by the ministry of labour and employment to assess the impact of the slowdown on the nation in the January-March quarter. The sectors covered were textile (including apparel), metals and metal products, IT/BPO, gems and jewellery, leather, automobile, handloom/power-loom and transportation.
Non-exporting units showed a higher rate (0.92%) of increase in employment as compared to exporting ones (0.28%). The sectors that registered a rise in employment during January-March are gems and jewellery (3.08%), textile (0.96%), IT/BPO (0.82%), handloom/power-loom (0.28%) and automobile (0.10%).
Decline in employment was observed in leather (2.76%), metals (0.56%) and transport (0.36%) sectors. Increase in employment of direct workers was 0.68% during January-March 2009 compared to the decline of 0.63% during October-December 2008.
The overall employment percentage of contract workers remained unchanged in the quarter compared to the decline of 3.88 during October-December 2008. Samples for the survey were drawn from 21 centres in Haryana, UP, TN, Punjab, Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, AP, Karnataka and Chandigarh.
