New Delhi: Despite the presence of positive economic growth, India has not witnessed a substantial overhaul in its employment conditions, as highlighted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). In its latest report ILO said that employment in India is predominantly self-employment and casual employment.
Nearly 82 per cent of the workforce engages in the informal sector, and nearly 90 per cent is informally employed. According to the 'India Employment Report 2024', due to the nature of employment growth since 2019, the share of total employment, which is in the informal sector and/or in informal employment, increased.
The report's employment condition index prepared for this report and based on seven labour market outcome indicators indicated that between 2005 and 2022, there was a slow but steady increase in values, indicating improvement in employment conditions. But again, this trend was halted – and even reversed after 2019 – after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding the modest improvements, employment conditions remain poor.
Decline in Wages
Regarding wages, the report noted, "while wages of casual labourers maintained a modest upward trend during 2012–22, real wages of regular workers either remained stagnant or declined. Self-employed real earnings also declined after 2019. Overall, wages have remained low. As much as 62 per cent of the unskilled casual agriculture workers and 70 per cent of such workers in the construction sector at the all-India level did not receive the prescribed daily minimum wages in 2022."
Educated Female youths more unemployed
The report also highlights concerning trends in youth unemployment. It said that the youth unemployment rate has increased with the level of education, with the highest rates among those with a graduate degree or higher. Also it is higher among women than men. In 2022, the unemployment rate among youths was six times greater than among persons with a secondary or higher level of education (at 18.4 per cent) and nine times greater among graduates (at 29.1 per cent) than for persons who cannot read and write (at 3.4 per cent). Educated female youths experienced higher levels of unemployment compared with educated male youths.
