New India’s new economy is the home of opportunities. The fastest growing major economy in the world is creating opportunities in employment and entrepreneurship for the youth. There are a number of reports and indicators that show healthy job creation.
Research Reports
- An analysis by World Data lab suggests that the number of people below poverty line in India is now less than 5 crore. For people to be taken out of poverty, they have to be engaged in certain economic activities.
- A study by McKinsey Global Institute titled “India’s Labour Market- A New Emphasis on Gainful Employment” has highlighted the fact that increased government spending, rise of independent work and entrepreneurship have led to incremental job growth for 20-26 million people during 2014-17.
- According to a NASSCOM Report in January 2018, around 1.4 crore new jobs have been created between 2014-17 in four core sectors includingautomotive, IT-BPM, retail and textiles. Around 65 lakh of these jobs were created in the retail sector alone.
Vehicle sales indicate job creation
- Net of exports, approximately 7.5 lakh vehicles were sold in FY2018 in India. Considering a replacement rate of 25%, this means 5.6 lakh new commercial vehicles added to the transport sector. Assuming a capacity of employment for each commercial vehicle at 2, we can infer that 11 lakh jobs are annual added in this sector alone.Ifthe sales of cars, 3 wheelers and tractors are factored in addition to this,over 30 lakh jobsare created in this sector alone yearly.
Manufacturing and investment driving employment
- The number of mobile and parts manufacturing units increased from 2 in 2014, to 268 in 2018. These units have also opened fresh avenues for direct employment for lakhs of youth. Such a massive expansion also has an impact via indirect job creation.
- Foreign direct investment is flowing in to India like never before. FDI inflows that stood at US$ 36.05 billion in 2013-14, jumped to US$ 61.96 billion in 2017-18. For the first time in 20 years, in 2018, India beat China in FDI inflows. Such massive investment boosts growth and jobs.
Tourism
- Tourism sector is known for its ability to create direct and indirect jobs. As foreign tourist arrivals grew by 50% in the last 4 years and foreign exchange earnings from tourism grew from US$ 18 billion to US$ 27 billion, the heightened economic activity has provided more jobs to the hospitality and tourism sector.
According to a report by the Ministry of Tourism, the sector has created 14.62 million (1.46 crore) job opportunities in the country during last four years.
- Domestic air passengers crossed 120 million in 2018. As UDAN added over 30 operational airports to India’s aviation map, these airports also created jobs and livelihood opportunities in tier II and tier III cities.
- According to KPMG, the travel and tourism sector grew at 16% per annum adding 30-40 lakh jobs every year.
Self-employment
- MUDRA aims to provide uncollateralized credit to entrepreneurs up to Rs. 10 lakh. More than 15 crore MUDRA loans worth more than Rs. 7 lakh crore have been disbursed to small entrepreneurs; over 4 crore first time borrowers have started their business using this credit. They would have not only found an employment for themselves but also created more jobs for others.
- A survey by CII has revealed that MSME sector added about 1.49 crore jobs each year in the last four years. This means nearly 6 crore jobs added during the Modi government’s tenure in the MSME sector.
Formal Jobs
- As per the data provided by the Department of Income Tax, an average of 1.5 lakh tax paying professionals were added annually between assessment year (AY) 2014-15 and AY 2017-18. Assuming at least some of these professionals hire some support staff, lakhs of fresh jobs are being created annually by these professionals.
- Between September 2017 and November 2018, a total of 73.50 lakh net new subscribers were added to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation database. Similarly, between September 2017 and November 2018, approximately 10 lakh subscribers were added each month to Employees’ State Insurance Corporation database. Even if we consider a 50% overlap with EPFO data, it yields about 10 lakh workers being added to the formal workforce per month, or 1.2 crore
Further, various states have put out claims on the number of jobs created, including Karnataka which claimed to create 53 lakh jobs during 2013-18 and West Bengal which claimed to create 68 lakh jobs during 2012-16 and 9 lakh jobs in 2017. Is it possible that there is job creation happening in various states but not in the country?
As investment in infrastructure projects like roads, railways, and power plants touches an all-time high, with the pace of building rural roads, railway lines and highwaysalmost doubling, more people would be employed to build such infrastructure.
India has emerged as one of the top hubs of start-ups and there is an ecosystem of mobile apps and aggregators created across sectors like food, logistics, consumables, retail etc. This has propelled job creation.
It is evident that, across sectors, the tenure of the Modi government has seen the proliferation of anumber of fresh avenues to engage human capital on a sustainable basis.
