Manufacturing employment creation picked up in FY23, says NSO survey

Sector GVA also rose 7.3% Y-o-Y to Rs 21.97 trillion

Employment generation in India’s manufacturing sector saw a notable uptick in FY23, with 1.3 million new jobs created, compared to 1.1 million in FY22, showed the latest data from the National Statistical Organisation (NSO).

According to the figures, released in the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) on Monday, total number of people employed in the manufacturing sector rose by 7.4 per cent in FY23, reaching 18.5 million, compared to a 7 per cent increase in FY22.

This came on the back of strong growth in the sector’s gross value added (GVA), which rose by 7.3 per cent at current prices to Rs 21.97 trillion. Total industrial output, in value terms, also surged by 21.5 per cent to Rs 144.86 trillion during the period under review.

 

“The year 2022-23 witnessed growth in this sector for the majority of the important economic parameters like invested capital, input, output, GVA, employment and wages, and even surpassed the pre-pandemic level in absolute value terms,” said the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (Mospi) in a statement. 
 

At a press conference following the release of the data, the NITI Aayog’s chief executive officer (CEO), B V R. Subrahmanyam, remarked on the robust performance of the industrial sector, stating that the country is now well-positioned to target a growth rate of 9 per cent. “India’s manufacturing sector has been generating sufficient jobs. People have been unnecessarily criticising the sector. We have completely wiped out the effect of the Covid pandemic. A lot of people (rating agencies and multilateral agencies) will be revising upwards India’s economic growth rate,” he said.

The top five states employing the highest number of workers in the manufacturing sector during FY23 were Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka. These states collectively accounted for 55 per cent of the country’s total manufacturing employment for the year under review.

The data also revealed that the average emolument per person employed in the sector rose by 6.3 per cent in FY23, reaching Rs 3.46 lakh, compared to Rs 3.25 lakh the previous financial year.

Maharashtra led the way in GVA contributions from the manufacturing sector, followed by Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh. These five states together contributed 54.5 per cent of India’s total manufacturing GVA.

Industries driving the sector's growth included basic metals, coke and refined petroleum products, food products, chemicals, and motor vehicles. Collectively, these industries contributed 58 per cent of total manufacturing output, with output growth of 24.5 per cent and GVA growth of 2.6 per cent compared to FY22.

The MoSPI survey primarily covers factories registered under the Factories Act, 1948, as well as bidi and cigar manufacturing establishments, electricity undertakings not registered with the Central Electricity Authority, and establishments with over 100 employees registered in the Business Register of Establishments (BRE) prepared and maintained by the state governments. It provides crucial insights into the changing dynamics of India’s manufacturing industries in terms of output, employment, and capital formation, feeding into the national and state-level accounts.