Share of regular, salaried workers in employment increases in 2017-18: NSSO

But the working conditions of regular, salaried workers worsened in 2017-18, with less people getting access to formal contracts, social security benefits and paid-leave benefits

The share of regular salaried workers in employment was on the rise in 2017-18, the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) latest jobs survey shows.

 

The rise in the proportion of regular salaried workers was more in rural areas than in urban parts. It rose to 13.1 per cent in rural areas in 2017-18 from 8.1 per cent in 2011-12 and 7.1 per cent in 2004-05. In urban parts, it went up to 47 per cent in 2017-18 from 43.4 per cent in 2011-12 and 39.5 per cent in 2004-05.

There was, however, a mixed trend in the proportion of the self-employed in urban and rural areas. The share of the self-employed among workers went up by almost two percentage points to 57.8 per cent in rural areas and fell by 3.7 percentage points to 38.3 per cent in urban areas in 2017-18 compared to 2011-12.

“This is a welcome trend as the monthly income earned by regular workers is generally more than what is earned by self-employed persons. It is a good sign as the salary of regular workers is higher and predictable,” said Amit Basole, head of the Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.

Even as for the first time more than half the regular salaried workers (50.4 per cent) were eligible for social security benefits in 2017-18, over 70 per cent of such workers had no formal contracts compared to 64.7 per cent in 2011-12. Further, more such workers had no paid-leave benefits.

The share of workers in agriculture and manufacturing sectors was on a decline compared to other sectors, even as more workers moved to the services segment of the economy.

These are part of the findings of the NSSO’s periodic labour force survey — the first annual survey on employment-unemployment in the country — conducted between July 2017 and June 2018. The government has termed it a draft report, even as the National Statistical Commission gave its final approval in December.

According to the report, the proportion of casual workers receiving wages on a daily or periodic work contract-basis went down sharply in villages, from 35.3 per cent in 2011-12 to 29.1 per cent in 2017-18. 

The survey pointed to a gender pay gap for regular wages workers across the country. “It is seen that in rural areas, male persons earned nearly 1.4-1.7 times that of female persons while in urban areas, a male person earned nearly 1.2-1.3 times that of female persons,” the report noted.

The share of workers in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors was on a decline, compared to other sectors, even as more workers moved towards the services segments of the economy, the report showed.

The share of workers in the farm sector went down the most for rural males, from 59.4 per cent in 2011-12 to 55 per cent in 2017-18. In the manufacturing sector, the decline in share of workers was the most for urban females, by 3.5 percentage points to 25.2 per cent in 2017-18.

“The growth in jobs in the manufacturing segment has been stagnant for a long time. This also means that the policies for promoting manufacturing is not able to generate jobs. Also, people moving away from farm sector are joining the retail and transportation sector,” Basole said.

The share of workers in trade, hotel and restaurant segment went up in 2017-18. For instance, for rural females, it went up from 3 per cent in 2011-12 to 4 per cent in 2017-18 and for rural males, it went up from 8 per cent in 2011-12 to 9.2 per cent in 2017-18. The share of workers in the construction sector went up marginally in 2017-18.

The NSSO’s periodic labour force survey of 2017-18 has not been made public by the government, despite the approval of the final authority – National Statistical Commission in early December. The government has termed the report as a ‘draft’.