Quarterly Employment Survey Reflects Tepid Growth In Organised Jobs

A Quarterly Employment Survey conducted by the government's Labour Department confirms the tepid growth in non-farm employment in the organised sector over the past few years.

While the survey is the first of its kind, the government has compared its findings to the sixth Economic Census conducted in 2013-14. Using that as a base, organised sector employment rose by just about 4% a year.

The survey covers establishments employing ten or more workers across nine sectors that together account for 85% of the total non-farm employment, as per the findings of the sixth economic census in 2013-14. These nine selected sectors are manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, IT/ BPO and financial services.

Key Findings

• Total employment in the nine selected sectors is estimated at 3.08 crore as on April 1, 2021. During the sixth economic census, as of 2013-14, these sectors employed 2.37 crore people. This implies a growth of 29% in employment across these sectors over seven years.

• The annual growth then works to just about 4%.

• Manufacturing accounts for nearly 41% of total employment estimated, followed by education with 22%, and health with 8%. Trade as well as IT/BPO each engaged 7% of the total estimated number of workers.

• The strongest growth in employment between 2013-14 and April 2021 was seen in the IT/BPO segment, where jobs increased by 152%. This was followed by health, transport and financial services.

• Manufacturing sector employment rose by just 22% over this seven-year period, while trade and the accommodation/restaurants segments saw a drop in jobs.

To be sure, since the survey overlaps with a period when the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted activity, it could reflect short-term changes in these sectors during that time.

Nearly 90% of the establishments are estimated to work with less than 100 workers. This was lower than the corresponding figure of 95% during the sixth economic census.

• Nearly 35% of the IT/ BPO establishments worked with at least 100 workers, including about 13.8% engaging 500 workers or more.

• The overall participation of female workers stood at 29%, lower than 31% reported during the sixth economic census.

• Regular workers constitute 88% of the estimated workforce in the nine selected sectors, with only 2% being casual workers.

• 9% of the establishments were not registered with any authority or under any act.

• 26% of all the establishments were registered under the Companies Act with 71% registration in IT/ BPO, 58% registration in construction, 46% in manufacturing, 42% in Transport, 35% in trade and 28% in financial services.

Covid-19 Impact

• According to the survey findings, 27% of the establishments saw a decline in employment on account of the pandemic.

• 81% of the workers received full wages during the lockdown period between March 25- June 30, 2020. 16% received reduced wages and 3% were denied wages.

• In the health and financial services sector, more than 90% workers received full wages, while 27% workers in the construction sector had to accept reduced wages and 7% were left with none.