2020 lockdown: Most job losses in blue-collar sectors; finserv, IT stem fall

About 7.5 per cent job losses were seen during the lockdown for Covid pandemic last year, with the manufacturing, construction, education and trade sectors bearing the brunt more than white-collared employment in IT/BPOs, financial services and health sectors, government data presented in Parliament Monday showed.

Among the nine key sectors covered for the All India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES), the manufacturing sector recorded job losses of 14.2 lakh between the pre-lockdown (March 25, 2020) and post-lockdown (July 1, 2020) period. Construction sector recorded a loss of 1 lakh, while trade and education sectors registered job losses of 1.8 lakh and 2.8 lakh, respectively.

Job losses in the financial services sector, on the other hand, were recorded at 0.4 lakh and at 1 lakh for the IT/BPOs sector during the same period.

Female workers registered a job loss of 7.44 per cent among the nine key sectors, while the job loss figure for male workers between the pre-lockdown and post-lockdown period stood at 7.48 per cent, data showed.

Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said that female employment in the manufacturing sector reduced to 23.3 lakh (as on July 1, 2020) from 26.7 lakh (as on March 25, 2020). Male workers in manufacturing during the same period reduced to 87.9 lakh from 98.7 lakh. Female workers in the construction sector were reduced to 1.5 lakh from 1.8 lakh, and male workers reduced to 5.1 lakh from 5.8 lakh during the lockdown. Female employment in the trade sector reduced to 4 lakh (as on July 1, 2020) from 4.5 lakh (as on March 25, 2020), while male employment reduced to 14.8 lakh (as on July 1, 2020) from 16.1 lakh (as on March 25, 2020).

The findings are part of the AQEES. The revamped Quarterly Employment Survey was conducted during the first quarter (April-June 2021) to collect the information on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the operational status and employment status of the establishments in the nine sectors — manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accomodation & restaurants, IT/BPOs, financial services.

The new quarterly employment survey released in September had shown employment in key nine sectors rising to 3.08 crore in April-June this year from 2.37 crore in 2013-14, the base year chosen based on the sixth economic census. Assessing the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on employment in the organised non-farm segment, the report had said that employment decreased in 27 per cent of the establishments due to the pandemic. As much as 81 per cent of the workers received full wages during the lockdown period (March 25-June 30, 2020), 16 per cent received reduced wages and only 3 per cent were denied any wages, it said.

The earlier version of QES was suspended in 2018, citing a gap in numbers with the payroll data. There are two components under AQEES, QES and Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES), which covers the unorganised segment (with less than 10 workers).