Employment in select export and labour intensive sectors grows

Employment generation in eight key manufacturing and services sectors grew by over 9 per cent between July and December 2012 compared to the first half of 2012, indicating that green shoots may indeed be taking root in the economy.

In the view of global economic slowdown and its impact on many developing & developed countries which inter-alia includes India also, Labour Bureau, Government of India in its report titled ‘Half yearly report on changes in employment in selected sectors (July - Dec, 2012)’  said that the employment in the selected sectors such as textiles including apparels, leather, metals, automobiles, gems & jewellery, transport, IT/BPO and handloom/ powerloom has increased by 1.68 lakh during the period July - December, 2012 as compared with 1.53 lakh during January-June, 2012

Snapshot of Half yearly report on changes in employment in select sectors for July to Dec 2012

At industry level, the highest increase in employment has been observed in the IT/BPO sector where it has increased by 0.64 lakh during the period December, 2012 over June, 2012 followed by 0.50 lakh in textiles including apparels sector. In the gems and jewellery sector, a marginal decline of employment by 0.03 has been noted during the same period. In the direct and contract category of workers, employment has increased by 1.09 lakh and 0.59 lakh respectively at overall level during the same period and in the exporting and non-exporting units also, employment has increased by 0.80 lakh and 0.88 lakh respectively at overall level during the period December, 2012 over June, 2012.

  Employment scenario across sectors                                                                                    (in Lakh)

Source: Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India

While for the period December, 2011 to December, 2012, it may be noted that the employment at overall level has increased by 3.21 lakh across the selected sectors. The highest contributor to this increase is the IT/BPO sector in which the employment has increased by 1.95 lakh during the period. The other sectors contributing to the increase in employment during the said period are textiles including apparels (1 lakh), metals (0.21 lakh), transport (0.17 lakh) and automobiles (0.09 lakh). On the other hand, employment in handloom/powerloom (-0.23 lakh) and gems & jewellery (-0.01 lakh) sectors have marginally declined during the same period.

Warm regards,

Dr. S P Sharma

Chief Economist

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PHD Research Bureau

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry