The agriculture sector single-handedly held the baton of India’s economy amid the coronavirus pandemic even so, it had lost traction in terms of the workforce prior to the lockdown was imposed. The agriculture sector employed 5.3 per cent of total urban workers through January-March 2019, which fell to 5.1 per cent in a year, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI). The flight of workers from the farm sector was towards the services sector. In the service sector, the percentage of workers improved from 61 per cent to 62.4 per cent in the identical interval through January-March 2020. A substantial percentage of workers also moved from the manufacturing sector towards the service sector. Later, immediately after the lockdown was imposed, the manufacturing sector came to a close to-standstill and the migrant workers returned to their homelands. However, it was the agriculture sector, which was losing shine prior to the lockdown, that absorbed a significant quantity of workers and gave them a meal in the challenging occasions.
A significant quantity of workers have been dropped out of the labour industry immediately after the lockdown. The NSO’s PLFS survey shows that the labour participation price was 56.7 per cent through January and March 2020. But, it fell to 40.21 per cent in May-August 2020, with the urban jobs suffering more than their rural counterpart. The labour participation price was 37.7 per cent in urban regions through the identical interval, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
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Most of the workers who exited the labour industry and managed to earn once more have been either absorbed by the farm sector, got MGNREGA jobs, or became a portion of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rozgaar Yojana. Meanwhile, the unemployment price shot up beyond 9 per cent in the month of December 2020. The major trouble that led to the rise in unemployment in December is believed to be the failure of the farm sector to absorb labour. Farming is the final resort of quite a few who are rendered jobless. However, in the month of December, it shed jobs, alternatively of absorbing.