Economic Survey 2020: The survey said the number of self-employed, regular wage earners and casual labourers have come down by 17 lakh in six years till 2017-18. Quoting various government sources, it pegged India’s workforce at 47.12 crore in FY18 compared with 47.29 crore in FY12, even as employment was getting more formal in nature.

There was also a drop in female employment in the overall job space. From 12.91 crore in 2011-12, their number came down to 10.85 crore in 2017-18. Stressing on the need to set things right, the survey said, “In an era of globalisation, no country can develop and achieve its full potential if half of its population is locked in non-remunerative, less productive and non-economic activities”.

The survey also found that the number of self-employed people, too, came down during the period to 24.21 crore from 24.54 crore; but that is mostly due to a significant drop in the number of ‘unpaid family labour’ category.

The share of regular wage/salaried employees in the total employment landscape has, however, increased by five percentage points to 23% in 2017-18 from 18% in 2011-12. In absolute terms, the jump is significant, around 2.62 crore – 1.39 crore in urban areas and 1.21 in rural India.

On the other hand, the distribution of workers in casual labour category decreased by five percentage points from 30% in 2011-12 to 25% in 2017-18 with the decline being in rural areas.
The survey said after the government’s effort to formalise the economy with measures like introduction of GST, digitisation of payment, DBT and opening of Jan Dhan accounts, there have been a huge increase in formal employment in the country to 9.98% in 2017-18 from 8% in 2011- 12.

The payroll data of EPFO, as on December 20, 2019, showed a net increase of 55.6 lakh as EPFO subscriber compared to 61.12 crore lakh on March-end, FY19. The EPFO estimates are net of members newly enrolled, exited and rejoined during the year.

However, to be doubly sure, the survey took reference from other government data and said the estimate of share of workers in informal sector (in agriculture and related areas) also shown a decline from 77.5% in 2004-05 to 68.4% in 2017-18.

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Meanwhile, the survey said that India integrating “Assemble in India for the world” into “Make in India” can create four crore well-paid by 2025 and four crore by 2030. Our trade policy must be an enabler because growth in exports provides a much-needed pathway for job creation in India.”

Given India’s comparative advantage in labour-intensive activities and the imperative of creating employment for a growing labour force, two groups of industries – a) traditional unskilled labour-incentive sectors such as textiles, clothing, footwear and toys, and b) in the assembly job, mainly for network products.

“Growth in exports provides a much-needed pathway for job creation in India. For instance, in just the five-year period 2001-2006, labour-intensive exports enabled China to create 70 million jobs for workers with primary education. In India, increased exports explain the conversion of about 800,000 jobs from informal to formal between 1999 and 2011, representing 0.8% of the labour force,” it said.