-The Hindu Study: divergence between growth and jobs has risen With higher growth rates not having translated into more jobs and increases in productivity failing to spur a commensurate rise in wages, the government ought to formulate a National Employment Policy that takes these trends into account, the State of Working India 2018, a new study released by Azim Premji University’s Centre for Sustainable Employment, recommends. Confirming the spectre of jobless growth, the...

-The Hindu The former Chief Statistician on calculating GDP back series, on indicators of development, and the fall of the rupee The draft of the back series GDP data, which was made public by the government recently, is unlikely to change drastically even if other methods of calculation are used, says former Chief Statistician of India, Pronab Sen. The noted economist discusses GDP, employment and poverty data; the value of the rupee;...

-The Times of India In time of a raging debate over jobless growth, nearly 24 lakh posts are lying vacant with the central and state governments, data compiled from answers to various questions in Parliament show. A Rajya Sabha question answered on February 8 shows that the largest chunk is the over 10 lakh vacant positions for teachers in elementary (9 lakh) and secondary schools (1.1 lakh). Apart from the vacancies in the...

  A document of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) dated 25th June, 2018 says that the number of members subscribing to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) scheme gives one an idea of the level of employment in the formal sector viz. mostly employment in establishments employing 20 or more persons (though EPF is applicable for certain organisations, which employ less than 20 persons, subject to certain conditions and...

-Livemint.com The new subscribers to EPFO likely represent formalization of a section of the regular workforce rather than new additions to it New Delhi: Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the jobs debate in India has heated up once again. Spokespersons of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) claim the Indian economy has created an unprecedented number of jobs over the past couple of years. The opposition as well as some independent...