Gujarat lags behind in MSME employment

At a time, when the Gujarat government is eyeing increased participation of micro-small and medium enterprises (MSME) during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit (VGGIS) 2013, the latest data by central government showed that employment in MSME sector in the state was much less than its peers.

As per the recent statistics provided by Ministry of Micro,Small & Medium Enterprises total employment in the MSME sector in Gujarat during the year 2011-12 stood at 4.77 million, which is much less than employment in the states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

UP recorded highest number of jobs in MSME sector at over 9.2 million, which is followed by West Bengal at 8.57 million and Tamil Nadu at 8 million. Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh each provided jobs to over 7 million jobs in the MSME sector.

“There is a high labour turnover from small scale industries to large industries in Gujarat. There are other alternate employment avenues available in the state, hence people shift to there,” said P K Jha, GM – Gujarat, National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).

The projections by the Fourth All India Census of the MSMEs showed that the nationally employment in the MSME sector was recorded at 80.5 million in 2011-12.

“Less employment in MSME sector in the state is mainly due to enormous opportunities for workers to earn from other professions. The MSMEs in state are actually facing difficulty in getting manpower,” said an industry source at Surat.

Kerala too remained ahead of Gujarat with 4.96 million employed in MSME sector, while Karnataka stood after Gujarat with 4.67 million jobs.