As a result of the economic slowdown, regular jobs continued being slashed in India as well and 172,000 workers lost their jobs in the quarter ending June this year. According to the latest findings of the Union Labor Ministry, the numbers of contract workers went up by 40,000 at the same time, with the increase being spread over several sectors despite this period requiring workers for agricultural harvesting.
Taking both of these figures into consideration, the overall loss of jobs stood at 132,000 during the last quarter. As jobs were lost, earnings in several sectors were on the fall too.
While the period from October to December 2008 saw the loss of 477,000 jobs, only 277,000 jobs were lost from January to March 2009. This period also showed a 0.68 percent increase in regular jobs, while contract jobs were reported to be steady. In the subsequent months, though, job opportunities have continued to be on the decline.
The most badly hit sectors are export oriented units – IT/BPO, textiles, and gems and jewellery where the employment continued to be on the decline in the previous quarter. The Ministry officials said that this decline in the textile and gems and jewellery sectors was not unique to this year but was common as workers left for their homes during the harvesting period.
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