News: Government looking to map informal sector jobs in the country

Recruitment

Government looking to map informal sector jobs in the country

The move is aimed at solving the problem of reliable job data of the Indian market.
Government looking to map informal sector jobs in the country

The Modi government has a plan to solve the problem of lack of reliable job data plaguing the Indian economy by mapping employment in the country’s vast informal sector when the labour ministry starts publishing quarterly surveys on jobs in about a year’s time. The surveys plan to cover enterprises with less than 10 people, including those who are self-employed.

B N Nanda, senior labour and employment adviser in India’s labour ministry, stated in an interview to a media outlet, “It’s a huge survey and takes the entire country into account. This will be the first informal sector data from the government, enterprise-wise.”

The move comes as more than 90% of India’s labor force estimated to work in the informal economy. Most of these businesses are typically cash-based. A lack of periodic and credible data in this sector makes it difficult to assess the impact of policy actions and measure the economy’s real growth.

As per a World Bank report, to maintain its employment rate, India has to create 8.1 million jobs a year said. According to the report, India’s growth is expected to accelerate from 6.7 in 2017 to 7.3 percent in 2018.

Much of the government’s annual jobs data based on household surveys, which also covers the informal sector, is dated. The labour bureau will soon publish the data for 2016-17, after a lag of two years and has discontinued any more surveys.

Meanwhile, as per payroll data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the National Pension System (NPS) for the first time, the economy added at least 2.2 mn formal jobs over the six months from September last year to February this year.

While the data bolstered the government’s claims on job creation, an issue it has been facing criticism on, but experts also point out that counting new additions to provident fund subscribers may not provide an accurate picture. Critics also say that new data overestimates job creation in the organized sector as many workers, who were working on a contract with same companies, were added to the fund.

The fact remains that state of joblessness still remains dismal. As per data from CMIE, India’s jobless rate rose to 6.23% cent in March from 6.06%  in February- the highest monthly rate in the past 15 months.

 

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Topics: Recruitment, #IndianSMELandscape, #Jobs

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