Unemployment rate in April had accelerated to 7.6 percent, the highest since October 2016, up from 6.71 percent in March 2019, according to data compiled by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The Mumbai-based think tank's head, Mahesh Vyas told Reuters, "The lower unemployment rate in March was a blip, and it has again climbed following the trend of earlier months."

The figures come at a time when the nation is voting for the Lok Sabha elections that are scheduled to end on 19 May. Concerns of growing unemployment and weaker farm prices have been looming for a while now.

Official figures on unemployment data are released only once in 5 years by the government, however, in December 2018, the governmental data was leaked by a newspaper that showed that unemployment figures were at a 45 year high in 2017-18.

Last month, a research conducted by a privately run university, that is Azim Premji University, showed that unemployment rate in India had doubled in 2018 in comparison to what it was between 2000 and 2011.

The report titled 'The State of Working India (SWI),' said, "The overall unemployment rate to be around 6% in 2018, double of what it was in the decade from 2000 to 2011. In addition to rising open unemployment among the higher educated, the less educated (and likely, informal) workers have also seen job losses and reduced work opportunities since 2016".