Changing Situation of Employment, Unemployment and Migration in India

This article examines the changing nature, pattern and extent of employment, unemployment and migration in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) and employment have gradually improved, which had considerably shrunk during the first wave of the pandemic, while the unemployment problem has waned, which had significantly amplified during the pandemic. Expectedly, urban people, in particular, were increasingly becoming more mobile. However, migration remains predominated by rural migration. Migration for work-related reasons was higher for the post-March 2020 than the usual migrants. The impact of the pandemic was severe for the migrant workers as they returned to their home states due to a sudden job loss. Reverse migrant workers constituted about 1% of India’s population. Largely, the pandemic and partly the reverse migration were concerned for the labour market. Eventually, employment, unemployment and migration conditions have been normalised. JEL Codes: J200, J210, J64, J600, J640, J610