Context: Joblessness is bad enough, but underemployment has been worsening as the jobless return to farms.
Unemployment crisis in India: Inferences from a third annual round of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of India’s National Statistical Office (NSO)
Conclusion: The PLFS estimates are an early warning of a structural crisis. The pandemic slowdown may be reversed in the upcoming quarters, but the structural retrogression is unlikely to be reversed without the kind of economic growth that’s accompanied by the creation of productive and remunerative jobs.