Govt survey shows rising employment trend in organised sector

Around 3.14 crore people are estimated to be working in nine core non-farming sectors, including manufacturing, construction, and transport, in October-December last year, marking a rise of four lakh from the July-September quarter, a government survey said on Thursday.

In what could be interpreted as an improvement in the job scenario, it showed, that the vacancies in these sectors have come down to 1.85 lakh from 4.32 lakh reported in July-September 2021. The QES-1 (Aril-June 2021) had reported 1.87 lakh vacancies.

The third round of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) released by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav also showed women's participation in the workforce of these nine sectors has shown a decline from 32.1% to 31.6%. In the first round, 29.3% women were reported to have been working in these sectors.

"Happy to inform the report on 3rd Round (Oct-Dec, 2021) of QES shows a rising trend in employment in the organised sector, employing 10 or more workers, of the selected nine sectors," Yadav tweeted.

According to the Economic Census of 2013-14, the latest available, 2.37 crore people were employed in nine core non-farming sectors -- manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, IT/BPOs and financial services. The women's participation in the workforce was 31%.

The QES, an establishment-based survey, is aimed to provide employment estimates for a sizable segment of the non-farm economy covering nine sectors, and the first round was held in April-June last year. The nine sectors chosen for the survey account for around 85% of the total employment in the establishments with ten or more workers.

The latest survey showed that manufacturing continued to account for the highest estimated employment at 1.23 crore (1.21 crore in second QES) or 39.1% of the total workforce. While the proportion matched that of the second QES, it is yet to cross 40.6% reported in the first round of survey.

The education sector accounted for 69.26 lakh workers (22%) as against 68.47 lakh while the IT/BPO sector accounted for 34.56 lakh (33.21 lakh), trade 16.81 lakh (16.45 lakh) and construction 6.19 lakh (6.07 lakh).

Incidentally, there was a decline in the number of workers in the health sector -- 32.86 lakh as against 33.45 lakh in the July-September survey. This could be attributed to the easing of Covid-19 pandemic. The transport sector also saw a decline from 14.44 lakh to 13.20 lakh workers.

When it comes to vacancies, the survey said 3.3% establishments reported vacancies -- 44.04% were due to resignations, 12.14% due to retirement and 43.82% due to other reasons.

Of the 1.85 lakh estimated vacancies, the manufacturing sector topped the list with 81,846 followed by 47,076, and education 39,014. Vacancies reported in construction (2,550), trade (5,898), transport (3,229), hospitality (3,763), IT/BPOs (1,011) and financial services (957) were less than 10,000.

The survey showed that 92% of the 5.31 lakh establishments have been estimated to work with less than 100 workers, though 30% of the IT/BPO establishments worked with at least 100 workers, including about 12% engaging 500 workers or more.

In the Health sector, 18% of the establishments had 100 or more workers. Also, in the case of the transport sector, 14% of the total estimated establishments were operating with 100 or more workers.

Regular workers constitute 85% of the estimated workforce in the nine selected sectors, with only 2.1% being casual workers. However, in the Construction sector, 21% of the workers were contractual and 6.2% were casual workers.

Most (97.9%) of the establishments were located outside households, though the highest 5.5% of units in the accommodation and restaurants sector were found to operate from within households.

On the education front, the survey said 33.4% of those working in seven of the nine sectors -- excluding Education and Health -- were matriculated/secondary or less educated, while another 32.4% were graduates or had higher qualifications. In fact, the share of graduates or above was as high as 76.6% in the IT/BPO sector and 55.3% in Financial Services.

Estimated Number of Workers, Vacancies*

Sector	QES-3	QES -2	Vacancies in QES-3
Manufacturing	1,23,99,507	1,21,40,949	81,846
Construction	6,19, 227	6,07,013	2,550
Trade	16,81,085	16,45,934	5,859
Transport	13,20,346	14,44,410	3,229
Education	69,26,3315	68,47,572	39,014
Health	32,86,034	33,45,206	47,076
Accommodation & Restaurants	8,22,305	7,77,437	3,763
IT/BPOs	34,56,839	33,21,288	1,011
Financial Services	8,85001	8,73,336	957
Source: 2nd and 3rd Quarterly Employment Surveys (QES) * In firms with 10 or more workers