India's employment growth has been largely driven by self-employed individuals, unpaid workers, and temporary farm hires, according to private sector economists.
These roles, however, do not equate to formal positions with regular wages, a point emphasized by Amit Basole, head of the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University, on Wednesday.
The economists' comments follow the release of labour department figures earlier this week, which showed the creation of 20 million new employment opportunities annually since the 2017/18 fiscal year. This figure contrasts with a Citibank report claiming that only 8.8 million jobs were added each year since 2012, according to Reuters.
"What is clear is that there is a large increase coming from agriculture and from self-employment, which includes own account work or unpaid family work," Basole stated. He further clarified that the surge in employment should not be mistaken for the creation of formal jobs with regular wages, citing detailed data available up to the financial year 2022/23.
In the fiscal year ending in March 2024, employment in the economy rose by 46.7 million, bringing the total to 643.3 million from 596.7 million the previous year, according to a statement by the central bank on Monday.
The Reserve Bank of India database indicated that agricultural work opportunities contributed 48 million of the 100 million jobs generated between the financial years 2017/18 and 2022/23, Basole added.
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