The results of the consumer pyramid household survey, by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), revealed that an increase of 8.5 million jobs in September took the total number of those employed in India to 406.2 million. The number is less than the 2019 figure of 406.7 million. However, this is still the highest number since the pandemic hit in March 2020.
For this survey, CMIE analysed samples from over 1.79 lakh households and over 5.22 lakh members over 15 years old.
The trends reveal that the unemployment rate also dropped to 6.86 per cent in September from 8.3 per cent in August.
The labour force participation rate also increased marginally from August to September, from 40.5 per cent to 40.7 per cent. The employment rate grew from 37.2 per cent to 37.9 per cent. Salaried jobs take the lead of all the major occupation groups in the job increase. Employment among daily wage workers also increased by 5.5 million this quarter, from 128.4 million in August to 134 million in September.
There were some not so positive developments discovered as well. The estimated count of entrepreneurs was discovered to have fallen from 76 million in August to 74.4 million in September.
Sector-wise employment from August till September is not similar for all the sectors. In construction, employment increased by 5.5 million between August and September. In manufacturing, it increased by 2.9 million, while it increased by 2.5 million in the food industries. Retail witnessed a decrease in employment by 4.3 million between August and September, while in the IT industry, employment decreased from two million in May-June 2021 to 1.8 million by September.
