Unemployment rate in Bihar on the rise as per CMIE

In a recent release by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said, Bihar has rated among the worst affected states in terms of unemployment during the lockdown. This is very surprising because it is a relatively much poorer state and its households therefore cannot afford to remain unemployed. The very high unemployment rate in very poor states is a serious double whammy. The stringent lockdown must have hurt Bihar households very severely.

Unemployment in Bihar was greater than the national rate of 23.5%. Nationwide, unemployment was highest in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Bihar at 49.8%, 47.1%, and 46.6% respectively. It was lowest in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana at 2.9%, 3.4%, and 6.2% respectively. Data has been sourced from the CMIE Unemployment website.

There are few frequently updated government metrics for tracking jobs in India, particularly in the informal sector. As a consequence, high frequency indicators like the CMIE Unemployment Survey tend to be used as a proxy for evaluating the health of the labour market. The survey has a sample size of 43,600 households per month that are well distributed geographically, and across urban and rural areas.