The NSO the report also highlighted that there was a visible decline in employment among men and women working in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.




The NSO report also highlighted that decline in employment was also visible in secondary sectors like mining, manufacturing and construction. (Photo: Reuters)

HIGHLIGHTS

·         NSO report highlighted decline in employment in manufacturing and agriculture sectors
·         There has been a visible decline in number of men and women working in the two sectors
·         The prolonged slowdown in the two sectors could further weaken India's economic growth
                                                                                                                                           

The latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) survey released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed employment in the agricultural sector has gone down in the last four quarters.
The NSO survey for the January-March 2019 quarter noted that the number of men employed in the agricultural sector saw a gradual decline.
While men's employment stood at 5.1 per cent in April-June 2018 quarter, it declined to 4.9 per cent in January-March 2019 quarter. In the case of women, an employment rate of 6.9 per cent was recorded during January-March 2019 compared to 6.7 per cent in the April-June 2018 quarter.
However, it still remains a steep decline from the women employment level of 8.1 per cent recorded during the July-September 2018 quarter.
The NSO report also highlighted that a decline in employment was also visible in secondary sectors like mining, manufacturing and construction.
While men's employment was at 35.6 per cent in the April- June 2018 quarter, it came down to 35.1 in the January-March 2019 quarter for men.
A similar pattern was visible for women, but the decline was steeper in their case. From 29.1 per cent in April-June 2018 quarter, it came down to 28.1 per cent in the January-March 2019 quarter.
The NSO data is also in line with the paper penned by Santosh Mehrotra and Jajati K Parida, which was published by the Centre of Sustainable Employment at the Azim Premji University.
The paper published last month showed employment fell by around nine million (90 lakh) between 2011-12 and 2017-18 for the first time in the country, due to a sharp slowdown in agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
Experts are of the opinion that a decline in manufacturing is defeating the purpose of the Narendra Modi government's 'Make in India' initiative and could worsen economic growth.