Five sectors see dip in employment in Q4

Reflecting a "mild slowdown", five of the eight sectors tracked by the government showed a moderate decline in employment in the fourth quarter of 2011-12, as compared to the third quarter.

However, at the aggregate level, employment rose by 81,000 people in the eight sectors, since information technology/business process outsourcing and transport were exceptions to the declining jobs scenario. However, this was the lowest addition to employment by the eight sectors in any 2011-12 quarter.

The quarterly survey, conducted by the Labour Bureau since October-December 2008 when global financial crisis deepened, showed the leather, metals, automobiles, gems & jewellery and handloom/powerloom sectors gave employment to less numbers in January-March compared to October-December 2011.

However, the decline was moderate, from just 1,000 jobs less in automobiles to 16,000 in handloom-powerloom.

“The survey results indicate that employment in the handloom/powerloom and gems & jewellery sectors, which registered an increase in employment during the last three quarters, have registered a slight decline during January-March, indicating a mild slowdown,” the Bureau said.

This was more than compensated by the IT/BPO sector, which generated 104,000 additional jobs and the transport sector which gave employment to 16,000 more people.

However, the increase in jobs in IT/BPO was the lowest in any quarter of 2011-12, showing a worsening environment for demand abroad.

The textile sector, including apparel, did not add any additional jobs during the fourth quarter of 2011-12 compared to the third quarter.

In the leather sector, employment registered a continued decline during the latest three quarters, after a marginal increase of 1,000 jobs in the quarter ending June 2011.

The first such survey, for the quarter October-December 2008, was conducted during January, 2009. It showed half a million lost their jobs during the quarter in the selected sectors.

In that sense, the jobs situation was not as pessimistic in the fourth quarter of 2011-12 as compared to October-December 2008-09. This is despite the fact that economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2011-12 fell to a 32-quarter low, at 5.3 per cent.

A total of 2,086 sample units were covered in the latest survey in the eight selected sectors— textiles, leather, metals, automobiles, gems & jewellery, transport, IT/BPO and handloom/powerloom.