The gems and jewellery sector, hit hard by the global financial meltdown, has begun showing signs of improvement with employment reporting a 3.80 per cent increase during January-March 2009.
Having reported a massive 10.28 per cent dip in employment during October-December 2008, the sector increased its workforce during the last quarter of the previous fiscal, according to a survey commissioned by the Labour and Employment Ministry.
The sector, which primarily draws its income through exports to the US and European markets, suffered a major set back due the global financial meltdown triggered by collapse of America's iconic investment banker Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
Official figures show, India exported gems and jewellery worth $18.4 billion in 2008-09 showing a decline of 6 per cent over the previous fiscal.
According to the survey, there has been overall increase in employment by quarter a million or 0.60 per cent during the three months of the year.
Employment rate grew by 0.96 per cent and 0.83 per cent in textiles and IT-BPO sectors, respectively, during January to April this year. The handloom-power loom and automobiles sectors recorded a rise in employment by 0.28 per cent and 0.10 per cent, respectively.
However, despite an overall improvement in employment seen in the country during the three months (January-March 2009), some sectors saw a decline during the same period.
Leather, metals and transport sectors registered a dip in employment by 2.76 per cent, 0.56 per cent and 0.36 per cent respectively.
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It is estimated that in the first quarter of this year, employment in the sectors have increased to 15.72 million.
However, the employment during March this year remained lower than employment in September last, when the figure was 16.2 million, the survey said.
The survey was conducted in textiles, leather, metals, automobiles, transport, power loom and hand loom, gems and jewelery, and IT/BPO sectors.