India's big problem

Unemployment continues to worry

The eleventh round of the periodic labour force survey (PLFS), covering the months of April to June 2021, has been released. It underlines the fact that unemployment continues to be the most pressing economic problem in India, as well as adding detail to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the job market. The onset of the pandemic in early 2020 had led to the draconian national lockdown from late March 2020. This, in turn, had ensured that the unemployment numbers for April to June 2020 were remarkably high, with the PLFS for that quarter providing a figure of about