Impact of COVID-19 on Employment in Himachal Pradesh – A Case Study

Abstract The impact of COVID-19 has been sector-specific as per relaxations allowed under different lockdown announcements by the Indian Government. Sectors with high potential threats of spreading COVID-19 cases have been allowed restricted operations. Depending on the degree of operationalization as per government orders, employment prospects have widened after the complete lockdown period has elapsed. The Government of Himachal Pradesh had rolled out the skill register (https://skillregister.hp.gov.in/) to capture the impact of COVID-19 in the month of July 2020. There are around 16,243 people who have registered themselves on this portal till February 2021 and have shown interest in employment opportunities. To understand the current employment situations among the respondents and job needs, a skill study was conducted from November 2020 to February 2021. Seventy-five percent of these registrations are from four districts of Himachal Pradesh namely Kangra, Hamirpur, Mandi, and Una. Data was collected from 550 respondents by using the simple random sampling method. The study highlights that around 56% of respondents registered in the skill portal had lost jobs due to COVID-19 lockdown. Respondents shared that the skill mission of Himachal Pradesh made substantial efforts and around 47% of the respondents were connected to the various opportunities available in industries within Himachal Pradesh. Out of these, relevant industrial units had contacted around 13% of respondents and only one respondent out of 550 respondents had joined the job. Low salary, lack of jobs in the preferred area, the mismatch between required qualifications and experiences, risk of transmission of COVID-19, etc., remained as major reasons for the refusal of jobs by the respondents. The result highlights that the parameters like relevant experiences, pre COVID -19 salary, education level, technical skills, urgency of job are some of the potential factors which are considered by the respondents to return to the industry.