‘The Brunt Is Worse For Women’

Job portals see a rise in postings from micro and small businesses in select sectors. In an interaction with Lola Nayar, Sabina Dewan, President and Executive Director of JustJobs Network, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, shares her views on the emerging trends in the job market. Excerpts from the discussion: What are the current trends in the post-Covid job market? The pandemic has no doubt wreaked havoc on livelihoods. The unemployment rate has gone up from 7.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2019 to 8.75 per cent in 2020. CMIE recorded unemployment to be 9.3 per cent at the end of the first quarter this year. And unemployment doesn’t reflect those that drop out of the labour force altogether. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some of those who have lost formal sector jobs are entering into informal work arrangements – doing whatever they can to...