The Indian unemployment rate went off the charts following the COVID-19 outbreak in the country and subsequent lockdown. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, it reached 23.5 percent overall (average of rural and urban rates) in April and in May.
According to reporting by Economic Times, the rate was back down to just 8.5 percent in the third week of June. This is equivalent to the rate at the time before the COVID-19 crisis, when the Indian monthly unemployment rate hovered around 7-8 percent, acording to CMIE. The highest rate reached in the five years before the coronavirus pandemic was 9.7 percent in May of 2016.
