A severe contraction of employment took place in India between 2004–05 and 2011–12. NSSO surveys show a fall in work participation rates in rural and urban areas, and for men and women. This monograph presents a detailed age-cohort analysis to throw light on dynamics of changes in structure of employment in the economy.

The study shows that changes in employment conditions between 2004–05 and 2011–12 were primarily driven by low levels of employment creation except in a few activities like construction that absorbed male workforce with lowest levels of skills. With declining labour absorption in agriculture, rural women workers were left high and dry, and were forced to withdraw from the labour force. On the other hand, new young male workers, jostling for employment opportunities, entered the agricultural labour force. As young and more educated rural male workers entered agriculture, their older brethren, with lower levels of education, were pushed into the construction sector. Over this period, construction emerged as the employer of last resort, requiring most arduous labour and employing workers with lowest levels of education.

See the monograph here.

Recommended _citation:

Usami, Yoshifumi and Rawal, Vikas (2018), Changes in the Structure of Employment in India: A Study Using Age-Cohort Analysis of NSS Data for 2004–05 and 2011–12, SSER Monograph 18/2, Society for Social and Economic Research, New Delhi (available at: http://archive.indianstatistics.org/sserwp/sserwp1802.pdf).

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