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Improving Employment Data
Report of the NITI Aayog’s Task Force (released in 2017) made recommendations to create a 21st century statistical system in India for the generation of comprehensive employment, unemployment and wage estimates on a sustained basis. These include:
♤ Conduct of household surveys on an annual basis.
♤ Introduction of time-use survey, that be conducted every three years (such surveys also
help in measuring women’s participation in unpaid work).
♤ Use of technology for faster and better data collection, processing and assimilation.
♤ Introduction of annual enterprise survey using enterprises registered with the GSTN as the sample frame.
♤ Separate annual survey of enterprises excluded from the GSTN database (i.e. those in health and education sectors, and those with turnover < INR 20 Lakh in other sectors).
♤ Adoption of inclusive and wider definition of ‘formal workers’.
♤ Adoption of GSTN across all legislations, ministries and departments as the universal establishment number.
CLASSIFICATION OF SURVEYS AND STUDIES TO STUDY EMPLOYMENT AND ITS COMPOSITION IN INDIA | ||
Type and Names | Description | Limitations |
Household Surveys: ♤ (+) Comprehensively cover the entire labour force ♤ (-) These are conducted every five years ♤ (-) Time lag between data collection and availability of the results ♤ E.g. - Employment-Unemployment Survey (NSSO), Annual Labour Force Survey (Labour Bureau) | ||
Enterprise Surveys: ♤ (+) Better accuracy than Household surveys, in accessing industry structure, wages and other employment characteristics ♤ (-) Available sample frames may not cover small, unorganized enterprises ♤ (-) Self-employed and farm workers are excluded ♤ E.g. - Economic Census (by MOSPI), Annual Survey of Industries (MoSPI), Unorganized Sector Surveys of Industries and Services (NSSO), Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) (Labour Bureau) | ||
Social Security Schemes: ♤ (+) Wide coverage of new job additions ♤ (-) Highly partial coverage and potential double-counting of jobs ♤ (-) Substantial overlap across the government schemes ♤ E.g. - Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) | ||
Other Sources: ♤ Administrative data: it includes tax returns and filings, pension and medical insurance programs etc. ○ (+) Good measure of formal employment ○ (-) Partial coverage ○ (-) Difficult to gauge addition of jobs ♤ Data from government schemes: it includes estimates via MGNREGA, MUDRA, job creations under programs such as ICDS, PMKVY, DDUGKY etc. ♤ Emerging sources: GSTN, Big Data analytics | ||
2.4. Unemployment Rate
Unemployment rate is defined as the number of people who were unable to find a job (though they were looking for jobs), as a ratio of total number of people who were looking for jobs.