A report by Azim Premji University titled “State of Working India 2023” highlights the impact of India’s economic slowdown from 2018-2020 and the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic on the labor market.The report used various data sources like surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office including Employment-Unemployment Surveys and Periodic Labour Force Surveys along with the India Working Survey.
Highlights of the Report
Faster Structural Change
- After stagnating since the 1980s, the share of workers with regular wage or salaried work started increasing in 2004, going from 18% to 25% for men and 10% to 25% for women.
- Between 2004 and 2017, around 3 million regular wage jobs were created annually. Between 2017 and 2019 this jumped to 5 million per year.
- Since 2019, the pace of regular wage jobs creation has decreased due to the growth slowdown and the pandemic.
Gender-Based Earnings Disparities Reduced
- In 2004, salaried women workers earned 70% of what men earned.
- By 2017 the gap had reduced and women earned 76% of what men did. Since then the gap has remained constant till 2021-22.
Unemployment Rates and Education
- The overall unemployment rate reduced to 6.6% in 2021-22 from 8.7% in 2017-18.
- However, for graduates under the age of 25, the unemployment rate was strikingly high at 42.3%.
- In contrast, those completing higher secondary education had a lower unemployment rate of 21.4%.
Women’s Workforce Participation
- Post the Covid-19 Pandemic, 60% of women were self-employed compared to 50% before.
- However, this increase in workforce participation was accompanied by a decline in self-employment earnings, reflecting the pandemic’s distressing impact.
Intergenerational Mobility
- Intergenerational upward mobility has shown an upward trend, indicating socio-economic progress.
- However, this trend is weaker for workers from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes compared to general castes.
- 75.6 % of SC/ST men in casual wage work also had sons involved in casual wage work in 2018. In comparison, the figure stood at 86.5 % in 2004, indicating that sons of casual wage workers belonging to SC/ST category have moved to other kinds of employment, most notably informal regular wage work.
Caste-wise Workforce Dynamics
- There are changes in caste-wise workforce participation over the years.
- The share of SC workers in casual wage work has significantly reduced, but this reduction is more pronounced in the general caste category.
- For instance, in 2021, 40% of SC workers were involved in casual employment as compared to 13% of general caste workers.
- Furthermore, around 22 % of SC workers were regular wage workers as opposed to 32% of general caste workers.