Instead Of Rising, Employment Shrank By 0.1% In Financial Year 2015-16 And By 0.2% In 2014-15

In the year 2015-16, employment in the Indian economy fell by 0.1% and in 2014-15, employment shrank by 0.2%. Far from jobs being created, employment has been contracting, reported Livemint.

This is the finding from the latest KLEMS India database, a research project supported by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to analyse the productivity of the Indian economy. It is part of the World KLEMS initiative that is supported by various universities, colleges, research institutions to find out the economic growth of a country.

In which sectors employment fell?

The data, recently updated till 2015-16, shows that employment fell in several sectors. ‘Agriculture, forestry, fishing’, mining, manufacture of food products, textiles, leather products, paper, transport equipment and trade are some sectors that have witnessed the decline.

On the other hand, the Gross Domestic Product in the year 2014-15 was growing by 7.4% in 2014-15 and 8.2% in 2015-16.

People moving out of the farming sector is apparent. Agriculture has become difficult with very fewer returns, hence, more and more farmers are moving out in search of good employment opportunities. In the two years to 2015-16, 70% of them found employment in the construction industry.

Now, with more people moving towards construction productivity of sector the has been decreasing. The KLEMS data shows that total factor productivity in the construction industry has been falling every year since 2006-07. People are moving out of agriculture into another area of low and declining productivity, reported Livemint.

The problem of growth and unemployment is not new in India. The KLEMS report shows that in the 1980s when growth was low, employment was on the rise. Now. when the growth is more, employment is falling.