BENGALURU: The state of worklessness in India continues to exist and the crisis is mounting every passing year. Although the economy is witnessing a positive growth, there is no reflection of that growth in the employment sector. According to the latest Asia-Pacific Human Development’s report, the employment crisis will aggravate for the growing population in the next 35 years as less than half of the labor market entrants between 1991 and 2013 are likely to get dissolved, reports Asit Ranjan Mishra, Livemint.

The recently released report by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reveals that the size of the “working age” population in India rose by 300 million within the period from 1991 to 2013. Only 140 million out of this 300 million landed in the Indian economy owing to the constrained capacity to generate employment.  

By 2050, UNDP projects that the number of the entrants in the labor market will grow by 280 million.

The labor workforce in India witnesses 1 million newcomers every month, as per the labor ministry data. A part of the employable population, however, (30 million) opts for higher education at any given time.

Taking into account the recent report, UNDP suggests India to focus on the job creation in specific industries like manufacturing. “This switch has been key to high job growth in China, leading to a significant decline in poverty. In India, in contrast, the manufacturing base is still small, contributing to only 15 percent of GDP and 11 percent of employment,” the report said.

Modi government’s Make in India initiative also works towards luring foreign investment in manufacturing segment.

“Globally, current estimates project that for every 1 percentage point increase in the working-age population, real per capita GDP growth rises between 0 and 1.1 percentage points, depending on the region,” the report said.

According to N.R. Bhanumurthy, professor of economics, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the Indian economy witness more of a services-led growth with low employment intensity between 1991 and 2013. He also added that the current government’s programmes like Make in India and Startup India have the potential to overcome this issue by creating more jobs in manufacturing sector.

China and India collectively dominate the workforce in the Asia-Pacific region with 62 percent of the workers, said the report. However, the slowdown in China has dropped its share. On the other hand, India is estimated to have a maximum of 1.1 billion workers by 2050.

As of 2010, East Asia accounted for 73 percent of working age population. “At present, the median ages in East Asia, South-East Asia and South Asia are 38, 29 and 26, respectively, a disparity prompting growing migration within the region,” UNDP said.

Yet another reason for employment crisis in India is its large informal sector accounting for 84 percent of the current jobs. This informal sector primarily employs low wage workers and fall short to provide them sufficient protection.

“Measures to begin correcting some of these concerns include universal registration of workers; effective implementation of existing labour laws; formal binding guidelines for contracts between employers, recruiters and workers; reform and harmonization of major labor laws applicable to the industry; and reform of social security laws to allow more effective implementation,” the report said.

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