Labour Minister’s employment numbers do not tell the whole story https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/labour-ministers-employment-numbers-do-not-tell-the-whole-story-9761615/
look at the employment rate or WPR the percentage of people employed as a proportion of the total population. WPR.. was 62.2 per cent in 2004-05, the first full year under UPA rule. Since then, despite unprecedented rates of GDP growth, it fell to 55.9 per cent in 2009-10 and 54.7 per cent in 2011-12. The WPR continued to fall well into the first four years of the decade under the NDA to hit a low of 46.8 per cent in 2017-18. It is from this low level that the WPR started its steady upward climb and by the end of 2023-24 (July to June year), rose to 58.2 per cent. In other words, the dip and recovery in employment rate does not follow the neat political divide.
Most notably, perhaps, the recent improvement in India’s labour statistics hides the poor quality of the new jobs being created in the economy. ..the fact that most of the new jobs are in the low-paying “self-employment” category — especially as “unpaid helpers in household enterprises” — actually suggests deepening economic distress.