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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 'Jobless growth' during UPA-1, admits Centre -Rajeev Deshpande

'Jobless growth' during UPA-1, admits Centre -Rajeev Deshpande

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published Published on Apr 22, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 22, 2013
-The Times of India


Some 20 months after hotly contesting data on UPA-1's "jobless growth", the government has admitted to lack of substantial increase in employment between 2004-05 and 2009-2010, with the self-employed workforce shrinking from 56.4% to 50.7% of the total workforce.

In absolute numbers, the self-employed decreased from 258.4 million to 232.7 million in this period while regular salaried workers rose from 69.7 million to 75.1 million. The ranks of casual labour rose from 129.7 million to 151.3 million. Collectively, the total workforce increased from 457.8 million to 459.1 million, a rise of just 0.3% over this period.

The ministry of planning has identified limited flexibility in "managing" the workforce, high cost of complying with labour regulations, poor skill development and a vast unorganized sector as reasons for dissatisfactory growth in employment.

Responding to Parliament's finance standing committee's query on why India was not creating enough productive jobs, the ministry said while the number of salaried employees increased, the self-employed segment declined.

Interestingly, the ministry referred to the same 66th round of the National Sample Survey Organization that irked the government in June 2011 with Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia slamming the report as inaccurate.

The controversy deeply embarrassed the ruling coalition as the data seemed to negate the Manmohan Singh government's "inclusive growth" slogan despite policy initiatives intended to benefit the aam aadmi and make growth less uneven.

Under official pressure, the NSSO later put down the employment statistics to factors like rising incomes resulting in women choosing to stay at home instead of taking up physically challenging jobs.

Yet, the planning ministry has now told the finance committee that "India experienced average growth rate of 7.9% in the 11th plan. However, this growth did not lead to substantial increase in employment opportunities".

Stating that the NSSO data exhibited a shift in employment status, the ministry said in the period 2004-05 to 2009-10, the percentage of regular salaried workers increased from 15.2% to 16.4% and there was a bigger jump in casual labour from 28.3% to 33%.

Experts see the reduction in the self-employed sector as worrisome as it indicates informal employment that accompanies new real estate development, industry and urbanization in general has lagged.

This would typically include service providers like road side eateries, local transport, small shops and services like appliance repair.

The ministry did not explain the jump in casual labour but this could in part be attributed to the rural employment guarantee scheme, although the government has also argued that the trend contradicts claims of slowing employment.

The numbers may look even less flattering whenever the next bunch of statistics is available in view of plummeting growth. The government has listed measures like boosting manufacturing, developing skills, promoting labour intensive sectors and simplifying labour laws as an antidote to the employment logjam.


The Times of India, 22 April, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jobless-growth-during-UPA-1-admits-Centre/articleshow/19668470.cms


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