Manufacturing jobs grow 2.1%, total employment falls 0.1%, says RBI study

Total employment in the economy shrank by 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent in 2015-16 and 2014-15, respectively, according to the latest KLEMS India database, released by the Reserve Bank of India. Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing continues to be the sector with most number of people employed, despite consistent drops in the numbers over the past decade. Since 2013, employment in agriculture and such sectors declined by 6.8 per cent, from 217.6 million people in 2013-14 to 202.6 million in 2015-16. The database measures the productivity performance of the economy at an industry level, for 27 industries during the period 1980-81 to 2015-16. There were 198 million people employed in the ‘agriculture and others’ sector, and by 2007-08 employment grew to 244.3 million. The ‘electrical and optical equipment’ sector added 589,000 employees since 2013, and another 294,000 employed between 2014 and 2015.  Growth in the sector has been on the high side since 2011, and 2014 and 2015 employment rose by 9.1 per cent, which is the highest this year.