Productive employment

Policy must also focus on earnings

Discussions on labour market conditions are focused usually on the unemployment and labour-force participation rates. Real earnings often remain neglected. Amid the increase in labour-force participation numbers and lower unemployment rates, a recent report by the International Labour Organization and the Institute for Human Development cautions that all is not well with India’s labour market outcomes. The report highlights the decline in real wages in both urban and rural areas. The data for the period between 2012 and 2022 shows that the average monthly real earnings of regular salaried workers declined by about 1 per cent each year — from