News: Govt sets up panel to bring transparency in jobs data

Recruitment

Govt sets up panel to bring transparency in jobs data

The panel will look into the relevance of the labour bureau's quarterly survey and recommend to the government if the survey can be replaced by more transparent payroll data.
Govt sets up panel to bring transparency in jobs data

The government has set up a panel under former chief statistician T C A Anant to bring in transparency in employment data. 

As per a media report, the panel will look into the relevance of the labour bureau’s quarterly survey and recommend to the government if the survey can be replaced by more transparent payroll data.

An official statement stated, “The quarterly employment survey (QES) is an enterprise based survey, carried out with an objective to measure the relative change in employment situation over successive quarters for the establishments having 10 or more workers.

“The QES has several limitations. Enterprise data of the 6th Economic Census (January 2013 - April 2014), therefore, does not include the new units which have been added after April 2014 and, takes into account the enterprise having more than 10 workers and does not cover employment in establishments having less than 10 workers. 

“As a result, the QES effectively captures the employment size of about 2.40 crore workers only as against the total workforce of about 47 crore.”

We had reported last week that the Labour Ministry’s eighth quarterly employment survey (QES) has been put on hold on account of the more recent payroll data.

The eighth quarterly employment survey (QES) for October-December 2017 quarter was due in May.

It is to be remembered that as per the government’s first-ever estimate of payroll count based on Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscription, data from the Employees State Insurance Corporation, and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority released in April this year, over 35 lakh jobs were added in the formal economy in the six months between September 2017 and March 2018. 

In contrast, the 6th and 7th QES shows only a total of 2 lakh jobs created between April-September 2017. Though the periods are not comparable as QES data comes with a lag, the latter is redundant considering its significantly low numbers and time lag.

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Topics: Recruitment, #Jobs

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