It's A Full-Time Job

As India aims for higher growth, it not only needs a massive spurt in job creation but also more meaningful employment.

- Salil Panchal

IN A COUNTRY WHERE AN ESTIMATED 1.2 crore to 1.6 crore people come into the workforce each year, jobs, or the lack of them, remain a cause for concern. With the 2019 general elections barely a year away, the discussion over how to revive a slackening pace of growth (6.6 percent in FY18 compared to 7.1 percent in FY17) is starting to get louder. India has a long way to go to touch the 9 percent growth that we saw a decade ago. However, even as the country aims for that, the need of the hour is to provide adequate employment to its growing labour force.

THE DATA CONUNDRUM

According to a report titled ‘Jobless Growth?’ released last month, the World Bank said that even to keep employment rates constant, India needs to create 8 million jobs per year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, during an election campaign speech in November 2013, promised to create one crore new jobs each year if voted to power. Experts say it is difficult to assess how many jobs have actually been created, considering there is no updated and comparable data from a singular agency.

The Labour Bureau’s annual household employment survey of those working in the organised and unorganised sectors of the economy showed a decline in total employment in India from 48.04 crore in 201314 to 46.76 crore in 2015-16.

This survey has now been replaced by the Labour Bureau’s quarterly employment studies. However, these take into consideration only eight sectors: Manufacturing, construction, health, trade, transport, education, IT/BPO and accommodation/ restaurants. This data reveals a rise of 1.22 lakh jobs during the period between October 2016 and January 2017 and 2.31 lakh jobs in total (in the nine months beyond April 2016), to help create a total employment of 207.53 lakh over the period, official data shows (see table).