Five million potential workers may have left the labour force entirely

It appears that the recovery phase of employment is over and a decline is setting in again

Employment declined in India in November 2020. This was the second consecutive month of a contraction in the number of people employed. In October, the count of the employed had fallen by 0.1 per cent. In November, the fall was larger at 0.9 per cent. The October fall was of 0.6 million. In November, this was much larger at 3.5 million.

The recovery in employment, from the steep fall during the April lockdown, was smart initially, but it slowed down well before the recovery was completed. In fact, the recovery quickly and progressively slowed down in July, August and September. Then,