Releasing the employment data for the month of November, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) continues to observe a declining trend in the employment scenario of urban India.
The think tank’s data reveals that the employment in urban areas through 2016-17 and 18-19 accounted for 32 per cent of India’s total employment. In 2019-20, the employment share had fallen from 32 per cent to 31.6 per cent. This number dropped further to 31.3 per cent in 2021. As of November 2021, the share of urban employment in India’s employment has gone down to 31.2 per cent.
Mahesh Vyas, MD and CEO, CMIE, recently said that the share of urban employment had fallen to 31 per cent in the first half of 2021-22. It improved to 31.5 per cent in October but has since slid back to 31.2 per cent. This indicates a continuing weakness in urban jobs in India, Vyas commented.
He further said that the drop in the share of urban jobs in overall employment implies a decline in the overall quality of jobs in India. This is because, urban jobs are arguably better providers of wages and are in majority in the organised sector.
The chief CMIE further observed that salaried jobs and the count of entrepreneurs both fell in November by 6.8 million and 3.5 million respectively.
The drop was compensated by a rise of 11.2 million in the unorganised sector, primarily the daily wage workers and small traders.
