The fall in the employment rate translated into a 2.6 million fall in absolute employment between December 2022 and March 2023. Most of this fall was in March 2023.

Urban employment rate increased to 34.96 per cent in February. This is the highest employment rate recorded in urban India since September 2020.

The unemployment rate shot up to a record 10.9 per cent in the week that ended on December 18, points out Mahesh Vyas.

Average wages paid by listed companies is more than twice the salaries paid by other enterprises, points out Mahesh Vyas.

The 6.7% growth in Index of Consumer Sentiments in July 2022 is the highest since September 2021, explains Mahesh Vyas.

Agnipath offers jobs to youngsters between 17.5 years and 23 years of age. The unemployment rate in this age group has risen from around 23% in 2017 to over 50% since 2020. Every second person who is looking for employment in this age group is unemployed, explains Mahesh Vyas.

The growth is particularly remarkable because it comes at levels higher than during the pre-Covid times, notes Mahesh Vyas.

This is one of the largest monthly increases in the labour force, observes Mahesh Vyas.

It would be larger than even in the pandemic year of 2020-2021, notes Mahesh Vyas.

What the labour market statistics of March 2022 show is India's biggest sign of economic distress, points out Mahesh Vyas.

This is reflected in an improvement in their sentiments as well, explains Mahesh Vyas.

A change in the desire to buy consumer durables is perhaps the most important indicator of an economy changing direction, explains Mahesh Vyas.

An overwhelming proportion of the unemployed declare their nature of occupation as students. In the quarter ended December 2021, 77% of the unemployed who were actively looking for jobs were students. This syncs well with another data, that 77% of the unemployed are between 15 and 24 years of age, reveals Mahesh Vyas.

Evidently, households see a brighter future after the Budget, reveals Mahesh Vyas.

Only West Asia and North Africa have a lower employment rate than India, points out Mahesh Vyas.

Eighteen months after the economy was battered by the Covid-induced lockdown, employment has not recovered to its pre-pandemic levels, points out Mahesh Vyas.

Households with only one employed person can be considered to be somewhat vulnerable. Their proportion is rising. Also rising is the proportion of highly vulnerable households with no person employed, observes Mahesh Vyas.

'We are today worse off today compared to where we were two years ago by as much as 43 per cent,' notes Mahesh Vyas.

The week ended October 17 was remarkable as it saw a fall in the unemployment rate. We have not seen such a level in any monthly estimate of the employment rate since March 2020, Mahesh Vyas points out.

Something seems to be working for Indian consumers. Yet, the Indian consumer expresses some caution this festive season, reveals Mahesh Vyas.