The All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey, in a report released on Monday, said that the overall employment numbers had increased by 29% from the base year of 2013-14.
However, in the first quarter of this fiscal (April-June 2021), 27% of the establishments surveyed reported pandemic-related retrenchment.
The report, released by Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav, covered 10,593 firms that employed more than 10 workers and were spread over nine sectors that account for 85% of the total employment in such establishments.
Overall, employment stood at 3.08 crore in the first quarter, up from 2.37 crore as reported in the Sixth Economic Census (2013-2014).
All but two sectors — trade and accommodation & restaurants — saw an increase in employment over the period.
The report said the IT/BPO sector had the most impressive growth (152%), followed by health (77%), transport (68%), financial services (48%), construction (42%), education (39%) and manufacturing (22%).
Manufacturing was found to account for 41% of the establishments, followed by education (22%) and health (8%).
There was a decline in employment in trade (25%) and accommodation and restaurants (13%), which Mr. Yadav said could be attributed to the second wave of the pandemic that was at its peak during the survey.
Dip in female workers
The number of female workers showed a decline too, from 31% in the Sixth Economic Survey to 29% as of the first quarter of the quarterly employment survey.
Speaking about the importance of the survey, Mr. Yadav said: “Evidence-based policy making and statistics-based execution is the major focus of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.”
He added that this survey and others covering unorganised sectors being conducted by the Labour Survey would help in policy-making.
Mr. Yadav said while 27% of the establishments reported pandemic-induced retrenchment, the silver lining was that 81% of the workers had received their full wages during the lockdown (March 25 to June 30, 2020).
Useful for policy-makers
Earlier, Labour and Employment secretary Sunil Barthwal said having contemporary data was useful for policy-makers and this survey would help other government departments and Ministries as well.
Mr. Barthwal said the survey would help the public as well as they could focus on learning skills that are found lacking in the workforce.
He said when the government was coming up with COVID-19-related welfare schemes, like the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, the only data available was from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and the Employees State Insurance Corporation, or “administrative data”.
“Soon, field surveys will start for the unorganised sector as well,” Mr. Barthwal said.
The Labour Bureau, with the expert group for all-India surveys under Prof. S.P. Mukherjee, is also carrying out surveys on migrant workers and domestic workers.
A senior Ministry official said these surveys would be significant in policy-making in general and in framing a “national employment policy” soon..
