More Than 20,000 Jobs Lost in Diamond Industry in Surat Last Month

Citing plummeting demand for cut and polished diamonds in the West and China, the Surat Diamond Association has published a report that over 20,000 workers have been put out of work in the last one month in Surat, India.

Bhavesh Tank, the vice-president of the Diamond Workers Union in Gujarat, spoke of fears of a return of the 2008-like recession looms large in the diamond city of Surat: “orders are fewer and so the workload is less. Therefore, the units are reducing the workforce. Some units are cutting down workdays so that they do not have to pay the workers on days when they are not working,” he said.

Surat, the main hub India's diamond industry, offers employment to some 800,000 workers in its 4,000-odd cutting and polishing units. According to Damji Mavani, secretary of the Surat Diamond Association (SDA), the decline in demand has forced most units to operate at only 60 to 70 percent capacity, implying a need for fewer workers.

Source: SDA | Economic Times

Photo Credit: SDA