Catching up with the employment rate

India along with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have a much lower employment rate compared to their respective expected values given their per capita GDP levels

The employment rate is an interesting concept that has not been used very often in public discourse. It is the proportion of people who are employed to the total working-age population.

World Bank's South Asia Economic Focus of Spring 2018 is titled "Jobless Growth?". Its findings are based on a substantial standardisation of household census and household survey data obtained from south asian countries over time. The key variable it uses in its analysis is the employment rate.

Keeping the employment rate reasonably high and constant, or at least not letting it fall from a minimum, seems to be a