EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of

Statistics and Programme Implementation releases the key
indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India.
The NSSOs surveys on employment and unemployment are
conducted quinquennially starting from 27th round (October
1972 - September 1973) and the last quinquennial survey
was conducted in NSS 66th round (July 2009- June 2010).
The indicators are based on the Central Sample of 1,00,957
households (59,129 in rural areas and 41,828 in urban areas)
surveyed from 7,469 villages in rural areas and 5,268 urban
blocks spread over all the States and Union Territories.

DEFINITIONS

All person who are working, are seeking and are

available for work deemed to be in labour force.
Thus, all those who are not working, are not seeking and
are not available for work are out the labour force and
not considered for employment or unemployment
statistics.
Labour force participation rate (LFPR): obtained by
dividing the number of person in labour force with total
population.
Worker Population Rate (WPR): obtained by diving the
number in workforce with total population.
Unemployment rate: Obtained by dividing number of
those who are unemployed with total number in labour
force.

DEFINITIONS

Usual principal activity status: The usual activity status

relates to the activity status of a person during the reference
period of 365 days preceding the date of survey. The activity
status on which a person spent relatively long time (i.e. major
time criterion) during the 365 days preceding the date of survey
is considered as the usual principal activity status of the
person.

Usual subsidiary economic activity status: A person whose

usual principal status was determined on the basis of the major
time criterion could have pursued some economic activity for a
shorter time throughout the reference year of 365 days
preceding the date of survey or for a minor period, which is not
less than 30 days, during the reference year. The status in
which such economic activity was pursued was the subsidiary
economic activity status of that person.

DEFINITIONS

Usual activity status considering principal and subsidiary status

taken together: The usual status, determined on the basis of the
usual principal activity and usual subsidiary economic activity of a
person taken together, is considered as the usual activity status of the
person and is written as usual status (ps+ss).

Current weekly activity status: The current weekly activity status of

a person is the activity status obtaining for a person during a
reference period of 7 days preceding the date of survey.

Current daily activity status: The activity pattern of the population,

particularly in the informal sector, is such that during a week, and
sometimes, even during a day, a person could pursue more than one
activity. Moreover, many people could even undertake both economic
and non-economic activities on the same day of a reference week. The
current daily activity status for a person was determined on the basis
of his/her activity status on each day of the reference week.

UNEMPLOYMENT CALCULATIONS

Estimates based on CDS are inclusive.

Captures the unemployed days of chronically
unemployed.
11th Five year plan used CDS as criterion.

OBSERVATIONS

About 40 per cent of population belonged to the

labour force - 41 per cent in rural areas and 37 per
cent in urban areas.
LFPR for males was nearly 56 per cent and it was 23
per cent for females.
WPR was 39 per cent at the all-India level- 40 per
cent in rural areas and 36 per cent in urban areas.
WPR for males was nearly 54 per cent and it was 22
per cent for females.
UR in the usual status (ps+ss) termed as UR in usual
status (adjusted) was nearly 2 per cent at the allIndia level. It was about 2 per cent in rural areas
and about 3 per cent in urban.

OBSERVATIONS

UR estimated in CDS was the highest (nearly 7 per cent)

compared to those obtained in either in usual status
(adjusted) or in CWS. It was 7 per cent in rural areas
compared to nearly 6 per cent in urban areas.
URs in females in both the rural and urban areas were
higher than those of males: rural female UR was 8 per
cent compared to 6 per cent for rural male and urban
female UR was 9 per cent compared to 5 per cent for
urban males.
Among the workers in the usual status (ps+ss), about 49
per cent, 24 per cent and 27 per cent were engaged in
agricultural sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector,
respectively.

SECTOR SPECIFICITY

In rural areas, nearly 63 per cent of the male usual status

(ps+ss) workers were engaged in the agricultural sector
while in the secondary and tertiary sectors nearly 19 per
cent and 18 per cent of the male workers were engaged.
There was a higher dependence of female workers on
agricultural sector: nearly 79 per cent of them were
engaged in agricultural sector while secondary and tertiary
sectors shared 13 per cent and 8 per cent of the female
workers, respectively.

In urban areas the share of the tertiary sector was

dominant (59%) followed by that of secondary sector (35%)
while agricultural sector engaged only a small proportion
of total workers for both male and females (6%).

COMPOSITION OF EMPLOYMENT

Employed persons are categorized into three broad

activity groups according to their status of employment.
These broad groups are: (i) self-employed, (ii) regular
wage/salaried employees and (iii) casual labour.

Among the three statuses in employment, at the all-India

level in the rural areas, self-employment had the
dominant share (nearly 54 per cent) while the share of
casual labour stood at 39 per cent and the rest (7 per
cent) of the workforce was regular wage/salaried
employees.

In the urban areas, the share of self-employment and

regular wage/salaried employees in the total usual status
(ps+ss) workforce was 41 per cent each and the rest (18
per cent) was casual labour.

TRENDS AND PATTERNS

share in total
employment(
%)
1983 1993-94
Regular wage
employment 16.1
15.7
Regular formal 10.2
9.3
Regular
informal
5.9
6.4
Casual
31.6
34.3
Self
employment 52.3
50
Casual and
self
employment 83.9
84.3
Organized
Source: Uma Kapila
2013
sector
13.6
12.4

19992000

2004- 200905
10

16.1
6.9

16.5
6.7

17.7
7.4

9.2
35.4

9.8
31.1

10.3
34.9

48.5

52.4

47.4

83.9

83.5

82.3

11.6

10.9

14.2

INDIAN LABOUR MARKET

Indias 520 million workers account for 1/6th of total workforce

of the world.
Next to China that constitute 1/4th .
Low sex ration in labour force: 28% as compared to 40% in the
world.
Workers have low education level as only 52% of workers are
educated as compare to world average of 77%.
The average year of schooling of worker is 4 as compare to 6.5
at global level.
Rate of unemployment goes around 8% where as level of
poverty is very high and incidence of poverty are high among
employed (36%) as compare to unemployed (27.7%).
Education among unemployed is as high as 8.8 years.
Need to understand dualism in economy.

TRENDS AND PATTERNS

Employment growth has deteriorated

2.24 during 1972-73 to 1983; 2.02 in next 10 years, 1.84
from 1993-94/2004-05 and 0.22 during 2004-05/2009-10

Employment content of growth has declined.

When GDP growth was 4.7% employment grew by 2.24 in
1972-73 to 1983; and GDP growth was 6.3% during 199394/2004-05 and was 9% during 2004-05/2009-10

Sectors with relatively higher growth potential have

registered slow employment growth
e.g. in services employment grew by 1.59% during 200405/2009-10 and in manufacturing declined by 1.06 during
the same time.

Agriculture still remains as largest employer

Most employment in unorganized sector

WAGES

At the all-India level, average wages received by

regular wage/salaried employees was Rs. 396 per
day. This was Rs. 299 in the rural areas and Rs. 450 in
the urban areas.
In the rural areas, wages received per day by a
regular wage/salaried employee was was Rs. 322 for
males and Rs. 202 for females, indicating the femalemale wage ratio as 0.63. In the urban areas, this was
Rs. 470 for males and Rs. 366 for females, indicating
the female-male wage ratio as 0.78.
Daily wages received by casual labours engaged in
works other than public works was Rs. 139 in rural
areas and Rs. 170 in urban areas.
Source: NSSO

ISSUES

Quality of employment
Increase in unemployment rate from 6.1% in
1993-94 to 7.3% in 1999-2000 to 8% in 2004-05.
Increase in underemployment
Employment growth largely in unorganized
sectors
Growth first to employment first: Policy issue?

SOME RECENT CONCERNS

One of the biggest shifts in the Indian labour market has been
the dramatic withdrawal of women workers in the past few
years. Indias female labour force participation rate, or the
proportion of women who opt for work, fell nearly seven
percentage points to 22.5% between 2004-05 and 2011-12.
Low female labour participation rates have been a structural
problem in India for long but the recent decline means the
country has among the lowest proportions of working women.
India ranks 10th from the bottom among countries ranked
according to their female labour force participation rate,
World Bank data show.
The greatest withdrawal of women from the labour force
occurred in rural areas, and was largely in agriculture. The
withdrawal is all the more surprising as it has occurred during
a period of sharp rise in wages that women earn. The gender
gap in wages of casual labourers declined nearly six
percentage points between 2004-05 and 2011-12 to 31%.

REASONS
There are possibly three key factors driving women out of the
rural labour force.
First, there seems to be an income effect that has raised
average rural incomes and allowed many women to quit
demanding farm jobs.
Secondly, there seems to be an education effect that is putting
increasing numbers of rural women out of farms and into
schools and colleges, which is reflected in the growing rural
enrolment rates.
Finally, there seems to be a dearth of attractive non-farm work
opportunities for rural women as most non-farm jobs have been
generated in the construction sector. The underlying factor
that drives women out of the labour force once the family
income crosses a certain threshold is the force of patriarchy.