1.71 lakh Job losses in the first quarter

Updated on: Friday, August 07, 2009

Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawal requests between April and June 2009 have touched a record 31.51 lakh, indicating large scale layoffs and a severe cash crunch for the workers.

Shedding 1.54 lakh jobs, textile industry was worst hit, followed by IT/BPO sector comes next, having reported 34,000 job losses in the same period. The gems and jewellery sector reported 20,000 job losses.

Exporting units remained badly hit. Across all sectors, employment in these units fell by a sharp 1.67 lakh. Non-exporting units across all but three sectors (textiles, transport and handlooms) saw total employment increase by 35,000.

Overall employment across the eight sectors surveyed-including metals, leather, automobiles, transport and handloom/powerloom dipped by 1.31 lakh.

Though employment numbers are typically released only once a year, in the Annual Survey of Industries, the Labour Bureau initiated quarterly employment surveys to study the impact of the global slowdown on India. The first survey revealed 5 lakh job losses between October and December 2008, the first quarter after the worldwide economic meltdown.

In the January-March 2009 quarter, employment in export-oriented sectors like gems and jewellery, textiles, apparel and IT/BPO increased by a marginal 20,000, compared with the earlier quarter, in which leather, metals and transport sectors reported reductions of 0.4-2.8% in their workforce.

1.71 lakh Job losses in the first quarter

More Education news