India’s Unemployment rate rose to 7.45% in Feb: CMIE

Joblessness as measured by the CMIE All India unemployment rate remained elevated in February 2023 and rose to 7.45% from 7.14% in the previous month.

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About the Rural-Urban Unemployment:

The urban unemployment rate decreased for the second straight month and was at 7.93% in February as against 8.55% in January. It touched a record high of 10.09% in December 2022. But more worrying the rural unemployment rate spiked to 7.23% last month from 6.48% in January.

Coupled with Decline in GDP Growth:

India’s GDP growth rate declined for the second consecutive quarter in October-December (Q3FY23), coming in at 4.4 per cent, according to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The latest quarterly growth number at 4.4 per cent is lower than the 6.3 per cent growth that was seen in the second quarter of 2022-23.

Record growth in eight core sectors:

The government also released the data for the production of eight core sector growth in January. It showed that production of eight core sector growth expanded at a four-month high of 7.8 per cent in January, which is up from a 7 per cent growth recorded in December.

Manufacturing sector in India: The biggest concern:

The manufacturing sector in India expanded at the slowest pace in four months in February but remained relatively strong amid buoyant domestic demand, despite higher inflationary pressures.

Rising borrowing costs and weakness in manufacturing have slowed the Indian economy. The manufacturing sector shrank 1.1 per cent in the quarter year-on-year, the second straight contraction reflecting weakness in exports.

The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global dipped to 55.3 last month from January’s 55.4.

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