India’s unemployment rate has increased sharply to 7.11 percent in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 outbreak, from 5.27 percent in 2019.
“India has had the highest unemployment rate in its immediate neighbourhood while among BRICS nations, Brazil’s unemployment rate has risen sharply between 2014 (6.66 percent) and 2020 (13.67 percent)," the report said.
India's unemployment rate in 2020 was the highest among its immediate neighbours, with Bangladesh’s unemployment rate standing at 5.3 percent, followed by Sri Lanka’s at 4.84 percent and Pakistan's at 4. 65 percent.
India's unemployment rate has been the highest among its neighbours since 2010.
The country’s unemployment rate increased from 5.36 percent in 2008 to 5.65 percent in 2010. It rose to 5.67 percent till 2013. The rate, however, dropped to 5.27 percent in 2019.
When compared to the US, the UK, and Germany, India had a higher unemployment rate than the other three, between 2015 and 2019, but in 2020, the US had a higher unemployment rate, it said.
USA’s unemployment rate stood at 8.31 percent in 2020.
The recent lockdowns and restrictions by various state governments also had an immediate effect on India, with the unemployment rate nearing the one-year high of 14.73 percent in the week ended May 23 (India's unemployment rate reached an all- time high of 23.52 percent in April 2020) as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.
