Employment in nine sectors, including health at 3.05 crore in April-June quarter, says labour survey

New Delhi: Employment in nine selected sectors, including construction, manufacturing and IT/BPO, was at 3.08 crore in the April-June quarter of 2021-22, reflecting a growth of 29 percent compared to 2.37 crore reported in the Economic Census of 2013-14, according to a survey. Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Monday released the report of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) part (April to June 2021), of the All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES) prepared by the Labour Bureau. Announcing the results, Yadav said the estimated total employment in the nine selected sectors from the first round of QES is 3 crores and 8 lakhs approximately against a total of 2 crores and 37 lakhs in these sectors taken collectively, as reported in the Sixth Economic Census (EC 2013-14) reflecting a growth rate of 29 percent. The AQEES has been taken up by the Labour Bureau to provide frequent (quarterly) updates about the employment and related variables of establishments, in both organised and unorganised segments of nine selected sectors. These sectors altogether account for a majority of the total employment in the non-farm establishments. These nine selected sectors are Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation and Restaurant, IT/ BPO and Financial Services. “Of the total employment estimated in the selected nine sectors, Manufacturing accounts for nearly 41 per cent followed by Education with 22 per cent, and Health 8 per cent. Trade as well as and IT/BPO each engaged 7 per cent of the total estimated number of workers,” Yadav said. The union minister mentioned that data on all aspects of labour is crucial. “Evidence-based policymaking and statistics based execution is the major focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the Labour Minister said. Such scientifically collected data with purity and integrity that can be cross-examined will be immensely beneficial towards achieving targeted and last-mile delivery of government programmes and schemes. Sharing the findings on the pandemic induced employment retrenchment/ decline, he informed that it was found that the impact was evident in 27 per cent of the establishments however the silver lining was that 81 per cent of the workers received full wages during the lock-down period (March 25 June 30, 2020). According to the survey the most impressive growth of 152 per cent has been recorded in the IT/BPO sector, while growth rates in health are 77 percent, in education, it is 39 percent, in manufacturing it is 22 percent, in transport, it is 68 percent and in construction, it is 42 percent. However, it stated that employment in trade came down by 25 percent and in accommodation & restaurant the decline was by 13 percent. Financial services saw a 48 percent growth in employment. Nearly 90 percent of the establishments have been estimated to work with less than 100 workers, the corresponding figure during EC 6 being 95 percent. Nearly 35 percent of the IT/ BPO establishments worked with at least 100 workers, including about 13.8 percent engaging 500 workers or more. In the health sector, 18 per cent of the establishments had 100 or more workers. The overall participation of female workers stood at 29 percent, slightly lower than 31 percent reported during the 6th EC. Regular workers constitute 88 per cent of the estimated workforce in the nine selected sectors, with only 2 per cent being casual workers. However, 18 per cent of workers in the construction sector are contractual employees and 13 per cent are casual workers. Only 9 percent of the establishments (with at least 10 workers) were not registered with any authority or under any act. While 26 percent of all the establishments were registered under the Companies Act with 71 percent registration in IT/ BPO, 58 percent registration in construction, 46 percent in manufacturing, 42 percent in transport, 35 per cent in trade and 28 per cent in financial services. Around 18 per cent of the establishments have the provision of on-job skill training programmes. There are two components under AQEES, Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) and Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES). QES has been initiated to compile relevant data from about 12,000 establishments selected through a sampling design to represent each of the nine sectors within each state/ Union Territory, as also each size-class (range of number of workers) within each sector-State/ UT. Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES) covers the unorganised segment (with less than 10 workers) through a sample survey. The AQEES will provide a consolidated picture with both the organised and the unorganised segments of the non-farm economy. The first round of QES had a reference date of April 1, 2021 for the different items of information about an establishment. The results on the first round of Quarterly Employment Survey April- June 2021) are very important to give insights into the concepts, definitions and sampling design adopted for estimation of sectoral employment estimates, the ministry stated. This will serve as a useful data for policy-makers, Central/ State Governments officials, researchers and other stakeholders, it added.