India’s unemployment rate (UR) spiked to 4.7% in October from a nine-year low of 4% in September, largely because of higher joblessness among rural people and women, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). While actual employment fell by half a million to 449.5 million in October, which is hardly unusual during the period, what’s more worrying is the employment rate (ER) over recent months falling to levels never seen since the Covid-induced trough.