Employment in 27 sectors rose by 3.31 percent YoY in 2022-23: RBI data 

The number of persons employed in 27 sectors, including agriculture, trade and financial services, increased by 3.31 percent year-on-year to 59.66 crore in 2022-23, according to data published by the RBI on July 8. During 2021-22, the employment in these 27 sectors stood at 57.75 crore.

The Reserve Bank said that the country added 4.67 crore jobs in the financial year ended March, far exceeding numbers in private surveys that point to high unemployment rates in the country, Reuters reported. The employment growth rate was 6 percent in 2023/24 versus 3.2 percent in 2022/23, the RBI data showed.

The RBI has placed on its website an update on ‘Measuring Productivity at the Industry Level-The India KLEMS [Capital (K), Labour (L), Energy (E), Material (M) and Services (S)] Database’.

The database covers 27 industries comprising of the entire Indian economy. The database also provides these estimates at the broad sectoral levels (agriculture, manufacturing and services) and at the all-India levels.

It comprises the Data Manual 2024 and time-series data on productivity for 27 industries covering the period 1980-81 to 2022-23.

The ‘agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing’ had employed 25.3 crore individuals, up from 24.82 crore in 2021-22. Construction, trade, and transport and storage were among the leading employment provider segments.

The RBI said the document describes the procedures, methodologies and approaches used in the construction of India KLEMS database version 2024.

“The production and publication of India KLEMS database are meant to support empirical research in the area of economic growth and its sources,” the central bank said.

Most importantly, the database is meant to support the conduct of policies aimed at supporting the acceleration of productivity growth in the Indian economy, RBI added.

The release of the data follows a Citibank report last week that said growth of close to 7 percent will only create 8-9 million jobs in India, short of the 11-12 million needed. “Even 7 percent GDP growth might not be able to fulfil the job requirement over the next decade,” Citi’s chief India economist Samiran Chakraborty wrote in the note.

The government on July 8 refuted the report by Citigroup. In its rebuttal, the government highlighted ‘several shortcomings’ in the report, which it claimed does not “analyse all official data sources available in the public domain”.

“The report fails to account for the comprehensive and positive employment data available from official sources such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Reserve Bank of India’s KLEMS data,” the Ministry of Labour and Employment said.

According to PLFS and RBI’s KLEMS data, India has generated more than 8 crore (80 million) employment opportunities from 2017-18 to 2021-22. This translates to an average of over 2 crore (20 million) employment per year, despite of the fact that the world economy was hit by COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-21, which contradicts Citigroup’s assertion of India’s inability to generate sufficient employment, the ministry said in its reply.

(With inputs from agencies)