Covid-19 crisis: Unemployment rate remains high at 24.3% amid lockdown

The labour participation rate trend seems to tell a story of some interesting changes in the labour markets

The week ended May 24 re­corded an unemployment rate of 24.3 per cent. This is a shade higher than the 24.0 per cent unemployment rate recorded in the preceding week. It is also a tad higher than the average unemployment rate of 24.2 per cent seen in the past eight weeks — those of the lockdown. The unemployment rate therefore continues to remain very high at over 24 per cent during the lockdown.

The labour participation rate (LPR) was 38.7 per cent in the week ended May 24. This was lower than the 38.8 per cent recorded in the preceding week.