Labour survey shows a decline in women’s share in workforce in the last 8 years
Male workers constitute 70.7 per cent of the total workforce in India whereas their female counterparts comprise of 29.3 per cent, shows the quarterly employment survey. More details here.
Female employees were largely reported in education and health sectors. Photo: Unicef India
The quarterly employment survey conducted by the Union government’s labour ministry shows that the share of female workers in the workforce has declined in the last eight years.
The survey report titled ‘Quarterly Report on Employment Scenario’ published on September 27 shows that the share of women in the total workforce has decreased from 31 per cent in the Sixth Economic Survey (2013-14) to 29 per cent in the first quarter of the employment survey in April-June this year.
The quarterly employment survey also shows male workers constitute 70.7 per cent of the total workforce in India whereas their female counterparts comprise of 29.3 per cent. Female employees were largely reported in education (43.9 per cent) followed by health sector (39.9 per cent).
Interestingly, the country has reported a surge of 29 per cent in employment across nine sectors — education, construction, manufacturing, transport, financial services, information technology/business processing outsourcing (IT/BPOs), trade, accommodation and restaurant and health.
The survey covered 10,593 firms that employed more than 10 workers and were spread over nine sectors. The IT/BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] sector had the most impressive growth (152 per cent) which was followed by health (77 per cent), transport (68 per cent), financial services (48 per cent), construction (42 per cent), education (39 per cent) and manufacturing (22 per cent).
All sectors except — trade and accommodation & restaurants — saw an increase in employment in the given period. Employment in trade came down by 25 per cent and in the accommodation and restaurant sector the shrinking of the workforce was observed by 13 per cent.
In response to the decline in employment in trade and accommodation, and restaurants, the Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav said that the decline could be attributed to the second wave of the COVID19 pandemic that was at its peak during the survey (April-June).
The Labour Minister also pointed out that the impact was evident in 27 per cent of the establishments, “however the silver lining was that 81 per cent of the workers received full wages during the lock-down period (March 25–June 30, 2020).”
Also, around 18 per cent of the establishments have provision of on-job skill training programmes, the survey pointed out.