Page 711 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

338 Economic Survey 2020-21 Volume 2

Number of unemployed persons declined by about 0.79 crore between 2017-18 and 2018-19,
largely in the category of females, and in rural sector. The females labour force participation
rate increased from 17.5 per cent in 2017-18 to 18.6 per cent in 2018-19. These facts reveal
that 2018-19 was a good year for employment generation.

Table 7: Estimates of Labour Force, Employment, and Unemployment
for year 2017-18 and 2018-19 (all ages; ps+ss, in crore)

Rural Urban Total
Category
Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total

2017-18
Labour Force 25.48 8.67 34.15 13.25 3.57 16.82 38.73 12.24 50.97

Employment 23.91 7.70 31.61 12.39 3.15 15.53 36.29 10.85 47.14
Unemployment 1.57 0.97 2.54 0.86 0.42 1.29 2.44 1.39 3.83

2018-19
Labour Force 25.77 8.77 34.54 13.60 3.68 17.28 39.37 12.45 51.82

Employment 24.37 8.46 32.83 12.64 3.31 15.96 37.01 11.77 48.78
Unemployment 1.40 0.31 1.71 0.96 0.37 1.33 2.36 0.68 3.04
Source: Estimated using PLFS 2017-18 and 2018-19 Surveys. The estimates are approximate.
Note 1: Projected population as on 1st January, 2018 was 135 crore which has been derived using the NSO EUS
(2011-12) formula, A = A1 * [1 + R /100] (82/120) , and population as on 1 January 2019 was 137 crore projected
st
with the formula A = A1 * [1 + R /100] (94/120) , where A1 is the census population as on 1st March 2011, R is the
percentage decadal change in population between census 2001 and 2011 and A is the projected population as on 1
st
January, 2018 and as on 1 January 2019 respectively.
st
Note 2: Principal status (ps) measures the activity in which an individual has spent relatively longer time of a
reference year (major time criterion) while subsidiary status (ss) measures the activity status of an individual
who has spent majority of days out of work force but have worked for short period of time (more than 30
days).

10.15 Industry-wise estimates on workforce shows that the largest, about 21.5 crore persons
are employed in 'Agriculture', which is still the largest employer with 42.5 per cent of workforce
(Annexure I). Next important industry is ‘other services’ where about 6.4 crore persons (13.8
per cent) were engaged. 'Manufacturing' and ‘Trade, hotel & restaurants’ each employed about
5.9 crore persons with the share of nearly 12.1 per cent and 12.6 per cent respectively, while
‘Construction’ sector employed about 5.7 crore persons in 2018-19 with share of 12.1 per cent.
Employed persons have significantly increased in Agriculture, Manufacturing and Transport
storage & communication in 2018-19 from 2017-18 (Annexure I).

10.16 Among the total employed, about 25 crore are self-employed, 12.2 crore regular wage/
salaried employees and 11.5 crore casual workers (Table 8). Self-employment is still the major
source of employment with close to 52 per cent of the workforce was self-employed. The
proportion of regular wage/salaried employees saw an increase in both rural & urban areas and
for both males & females. This increase was more among urban females which increased from
52.1 per cent in 2017-18 to 54.7 per cent in 2018-19. This also indicates the improvement in
quality of employment. At the same time, the proportion of casual labour showed a decline,