COVID-19 Crisis Sacks 19 Million Workers In India As Nigeria Logs 51304 Cases, 996 Deaths

FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 29, 2020. Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM/CDC/Handout via REUTERS.

Almost 19 million Indians lost their jobs within four months due to COVID-19-related economic crisis as Nigeria on Friday logged 340 new positive cases of the virus, and recorded four deaths.

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that announced the figures pointed out, ‘’till date, 51304 cases have been confirmed, 37885 cases have been discharged and 996 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.’’

Of the 340 fresh cases reported from 19 states, Kaduna topped the log chart with 63 cases, followed by Abuja’s 51, Plateau 38, Lagos 33, Delta 25, Gombe 21, Adamawa 21, Edo 20, Katsina 17, Akwa Ibom 11, Ekiti 10, Rivers nine, Ondo five, Ebonyi four, Cross River three, Ogun three, Sokoto, Imo, and Nasarawa two cases each.

However, a new report reveals that 18.9 million Indians lost their jobs between April to July this year, with five million of these jobs being shed off in July alone due to COVID-19-related economic crisis.

The data, released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), came as the Indian economy limps back to recovery from the coronavirus-induced measures.

The number of salaried individuals losing their jobs was the highest in April at 17 million (1.77 crore), followed by a relatively smaller number of 100,000 (1 lakh) jobs in May, CMIE reported.

Gains in farm jobs

Agricultural jobs seem to be better off than jobs in business salaried classes and daily wage earners; gaining 14.9 million jobs in the same (April to July) period.

In June, 3.9 million (39 lakh) jobs were gained but about 50 lakh jobs lost in the following month of July.

A report prepared jointly by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), states that as many as 4.1 million youths in India lost jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Construction and farm sector workers account for the majority of job losses, the report stated.

“For India, the report estimates job loss for 4.1 million youth. Construction and agriculture have witnessed the major job losses among seven key sectors”, says the ILO-ADB report, titled ‘Tackling the COVID-19 yo youth employment crisis in Asia and the Pacific’.

Asia-Pacific

The young people’s employment prospects in Asia and the Pacific are severely challenged due to the pandemic, it added.

Youth (15-24 years) will be hit harder than adults (25 and older) in the immediate crisis and risk-bearing higher longer-term economic and social costs said the report.

The report is based on a regional assessment of the “Global Survey on Youth and COVID-19” and arrived at estimates based on available unemployment data in different countries.

It says in India, two-thirds of firm-level apprenticeships and three-quarters of internships were completely interrupted during the pandemic.

The report calls on governments in the region to adopt urgent, large-scale and targeted measures to generate jobs for the youth, keep education and training on track, and to minimise future scarring of more than 660 million young people in the region.

Subscribe to our newsletter for latest news and updates. You can disable anytime.