The total jobs reported by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) registered with the government has crossed the 23-crore mark. According to official data from the MSME Ministry, 5.49 crore MSMEs registered with the government’s Udyam portal have reported 23.14 crore jobs, up from 13.15 crore jobs by 2.33 crore registered MSMEs as of August last year, adding 10 crore jobs in the last 15 months.
The total employment also included 2.84 crore jobs by 2.38 crore informal micro units registered with the government through Udyam certification and 5.23 crore women employment. Out of the total registered units, 5.41 crore are micro enterprises while small enterprises are 7.27 lakh and medium enterprises are only 68,682.
At the time of the Udyam portal’s launch in July 2020, 2.8 crore MSME jobs were recorded.
However, for the uninitiated, as per the National Sample Survey (2015-16) cited in the MSME Ministry’s annual reports for the last few years, the MSME sector comprising 6.33 crore unincorporated non-agriculture units has generated 11.10 crore jobs (360.41 lakh in manufacturing, 0.07 lakh in non-captive electricity generation and transmission, 387.18 lakh in trade and 362.82 lakh in other services) in the rural and the urban areas across the country.
According to the RBI data, 46.7 million jobs (4.67 crore) were generated in the country in FY24, taking the total job count to 643.3 million (64.33 crore). The share of agriculture jobs stood at over 45 per cent, as per the Economic Survey 2023-24, translating into around 25-29 crore jobs.
While the number of MSME jobs reported has increased since 2020, there has been job loss as well due to the closure of a number of MSMEs.
According to the data shared by MSME Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in Parliament in July this year, 49,342 MSMEs have been shut since 2020 and the total job loss due to the closure of MSMEs was 3,17,641.
“MSMEs de-registered or showed closure on the portal due to a number of reasons such as change in the company owner, certificate not required anymore, duplicate registration, and such other reasons,” Manjhi said in his written response to a question in the Lok Sabha.