Job creation more than doubles to 136,000 in July-Sept 2017: Labour Bureau

In the manufacturing sector, 89,000 jobs were created as compared to job loss of 87,000 in the previous quarter and job creation of 24,000 in the same period last year

Job creation in the organised sector rose two-fold to 136,000 in July-September 2017 compared to the previous quarter, largely driven by an uptick in the manufacturing sector, latest official estimates showed.

In comparison, job creation stood at 64,000 in April-June 2017 and at 32,000 in the July-September period last year, according to the Labour Bureau's quarterly report on employment.

The Labour Bureau conducts an establishment-based job survey in eight sectors - manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurants, and information technology. These constitute 81 per cent of the total number of factories in the country employing at least 10 workers.

In the manufacturing sector, 89,000 jobs were created compared to job loss of 87,000 in the previous quarter and job creation of 24,000 in the same period last year.

In the September-ended quarter, there were job losses witnessed in the construction sector alone with a contraction of 22,000 jobs. In the previous quarter, 10,000 jobs were created and in the September-ended quarter last year, 1,000 jobs were lost in the construction sector.

B N Nanda, senior labour and employment adviser in the labour ministry attributed the decline in new jobs in the sector to seasonal factors. "The unit level data showed that construction of buildings slowed down due to seasonal activities and festivities. Many migrant workers usually travel back to their home states during this period," said Nanda, who holds additional charge of heading the Labour Bureau.

 

Nanda also justified the sharp dip in manufacturing sector jobs reported in the results of the April-June 2017 period released recently. "There was a dip in brick manufacturing due to monsoon season. The same trend was witnessed in the same period last year as well," he said.

Job creation slowed down in accommodation and restaurant, information technology and BPO sector, education and health sectors in September-ended quarter, the latest figures showed.

The pace of employment generation slowed down to 21,000 in education sector from 99,000 in the previous quarter. New jobs in the health sector stood at 11,000 compared with 31,000 a quarter back. The pace of job creation halved in the IT sector and declined by more than half in the accommodation and restaurant sector.
 

Job creation improved in trade sector to 14,000 from 7,000 a quarter ago and in transport sector to 20,000 from job losses by 3,000 in the quarter ago period.

New survey

Labour Bureau has got approval from the Ministry of Labour and Employment to conduct enterprise-based survey for firms that hire less than 10 workers for the first time ever. This will ensure that the official estimates also capture the job estimates in the unorganised sector that is largely left uncovered in the present surveys produced by the Labour Bureau.

"We plan to conduct the area frame survey for bringing out pan-India estimates for firms hiring less than 10 workers from April this year. It will take almost one year to establish the base for this year, following which we will release the findings of job creation in firms with less than 10 workers," Nanda said.

The first such survey will most likely be released by the middle of next year by the Labour Bureau. An internal committee of the Bureau will take a call on the number of sectors that the new survey will cover.

The Labour Bureau takes sampling frame for the quarterly employment data from the Sixth Economic Census that took place in 2013-14. Establishments with less than 10 workers account for 98.3 per cent establishments in the non-agricultural sector, as per the Economic Census.