Employment in 9 non-farm sectors at 3.08 crore in Apr-Jun, up by 29% from 2013-14

An estimated 3.08 crore people are working in nine core non-farming sectors, including manufacturing, construction and transport, in April-June this year, marking a rise of 29% from 2.37 crore reported in the Economic Census of 2013-14, a government survey said on Monday.

The first round of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for April-June 2021 released by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav also showed women participation in the workforce of these nine sectors was only 29.3%, which was "slightly lower" than 31% reported during the Economic Census.

The QES, an establishment-based survey, is aimed to provide employment estimates for a sizable segment of the non-farm economy covering nine sectors -- manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, IT/BPOs and financial services. It compares its data with the 2013-14 Economic Census as the final report of the Economic Census in 2020 is not available yet.

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The manufacturing sector accounts for the highest share of estimated workers at 40.6%, followed by Education at 21.8%, Health at 8.4%, IT/BPOs at 6.7%, Trade at 6.6%, Financial Services at 5.7% and Transport at 4.3%.

Accommodation and restaurants (2.9%) and construction (2.4%) sectors have the least share among the workers and the survey said that the restriction on movement and others imposed due to Covid-19 pandemic could be the reason behind this.

The most impressive employment growth of 152% from 2013-14 has been recorded in the IT/BPO sector, while growth rates in Health is 77%, Transport 68%, Financial Services 48%, Construction 42%, Education 39% and Manufacturing 22%. However, employment in Trade came down by 25% while the decline in Accommodation and Restaurant sector was by 13%.

Of the 3.08 crore workers, only 1.6% are self-employed. Among the self-employed too, the women participation is very low as they account for only 11.4%.

The highest number of self-employed workers were accommodation and restaurants followed by trade. Among regular employees, the highest number of workers were in the health sector (99.2%) followed by IT/BPOs and financial services at 99% each.

Among the total work-force in nine sectors, 70.7% were men. A sector-wise analysis showed that women had the highest share in the education sector where they accounted for 43.9% followed by health 39.9%, financial services 34.1% and IT/BPOs 31.8%. In the nine sectors, the women workforce is the least in the transport sector at 14.9%.

While 87.5% were regular workers, further analysis showed that 7.8% were contractual workers, 2.1% casual workers and 1% fixed term employees.

Among the regular workers category, the maximum number was found to be in the IT/BPO sector (98%) followed by Health (94.8%).

The highest number of contract workers were found to be in the construction sector (17.6%) followed by the manufacturing sector (10.4%). Within casual workers, the construction sector has the highest at 12.5%) followed by the manufacturing sector (3.3%).

The survey said 32.7% of the workers in seven sectors except Education and Health) were above matric but undergraduate followed by 31.1% were matric or below. While 30.8 % workers were graduates or above and 5.4% reported under not known category.

Within the category of education level of matric/secondary or below, the highest level of percentage was in the manufacturing sector (37.1%), followed by the construction sector (34.3%). In the category of Graduate and above, the highest level of percentage was in the IT/BPOs sector (69.8%), followed by the financial services sector (58.5%).

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