Total employment in nine key sectors rose to 31 million in Q2 FY22: survey

Employment in the nine select sectors, which include manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurant, IT/BPO and financial services, is 2 lakh higher than the estimated employment of 30.8 million in the first round of QES (April-June, 2021). 

The total employment in these nine sectors taken collectively was estimated at 23.7 million in the sixth EC (2013-14).

Manufacturing accounted for nearly 39 per cent of the total employment in the nine sectors, followed by education with 22 per cent and health as well as IT/BPOs sectors accounting for around 10 per cent each.

The latest survey also showed that the overall percentage of female workers rose to 32.1 per cent from 29.3 per cent reported during the first round of QES for the current fiscal.

The survey also showed that nearly 90 per cent of the establishments have been estimated to work with less than 100 workers, though 30 per cent of the IT/BPO establishments worked with at least 100 workers, including about 12 per cent engaging 500 workers or more. 

In the health sector, 19 per cent of the establishments had 100 or more workers. Also, in the case of transport sector, 14 per cent of the total estimated establishments were operating with 100 or more workers. It may be mentioned that 91 per cent of establishments were reported to have worked with less than 100 workers in the first round of QES and in the IT/BPO sector, the figures during the first QES stood at 21 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively for the size classes of 100-499 employees and 500 or more employees.

Regular workers constituted 87 per cent of the estimated workforce in the nine selected sectors, with only 2 per cent being casual workers. However, in the construction sector, 20 per cent of the workers were contractual and 6.4 per cent were casual workers.

Most (98.3 per cent) of the establishments were located outside households, though about 5.1 per cent of units in accommodation and restaurants sectors were found to operate from within households.

About 23.5 per cent of all the establishments were registered under the Companies Act. This percentage was as high as 82.8 per cent in IT / BPO, 51.2 per cent in construction, 42.8 per cent in manufacturing, 36.4 per cent in transport, 32.1 per cent in trade and 23.8 per cent in financial services.

One-fourth of the establishments were operating as registered societies; 53.9 per cent were registered under the Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 and 27.8 per cent under the Shops & commercial Establishments Act, 1958.

Further, 28.4 per cent of those working in seven of the nine sectors (excluding education and health) were matriculates/secondary or less educated, while another 37 per cent were graduates or had higher qualifications. In fact, the latter percentage was as high as 91.6 per cent in the IT/BPO sector and 59.8 per cent in financial services. In the health sector, as few as 18 per cent of the non-clinical workers were matriculates/secondary or less educated, the figure being 26.4 per cent for the non-teaching staff in the education sector. More than 40 per cent of the employees in these two sectors were at least graduates.

The survey noted that 16.8 per cent of the establishments provided formal skill development programmes, although mostly for their own employees. It transpired that an estimated 5.6 per cent of the establishments were having vacancies in positions and the estimated number of total vacancies was 4.3 lakh. About 65.8 per cent of such vacancies were not due to retirement or resignation of the employees.

The demand side surveys along with supply side survey will help bridge data gaps on employment in the country, minister for labour and employment, Bhupender Yadav said while releasing the report on Monday.

The AQEES has been taken up to provide frequent (quarterly) updates about the employment and related variables of establishments in both organised and unorganised segments of the nine select sectors which account for a majority of the total employment in the non-farm establishments.

The `Quarterly Employment Survey’ report is an important publication meant to give insights into the change of employment over the previous quarters and many other related parameters. This will serve as a useful data for policy-makers, central/ state government officials, researchers and other stakeholders. 

Speaking on the occasion, secretary (L&E), Sunil Barthwal remarked that the registration under e-shram portal for the informal sector workers is increasing which along with new developments in the National Career Service (NCS) portal and QES survey results will provide national data bank with a realistic picture of employment at all India level.