Labour and Employment Minister Shri Bhupender Yadav today released the report of first quarter of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) part (April to June 2021), of the All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES) prepared by the Labour Bureau.

The AQEES has been taken up by the Labour Bureau to provide frequent (quarterly) updates about the employment and related variables of establishments, in both organised and unorganised segments of nine selected sectors. These sectors altogether account for a majority of the total employment in the non-farm establishments. These nine selected sectors are Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation and Restaurant, IT/ BPO and Financial Services.

The event was graced by the presence of Shri Rameswar Teli, Minister of State (L&E), Shri Sunil Barthwal, Secretary L&E, Shri D.P.S. Negi, Principal Labour & Employment Advisor and Shri I.S. Negi, Director General, Labour Bureau. Chairman, Expert Group on All India Surveys, Prof. S.P. Mukherjee was also present.

Announcing the results, Shri Yadav said, the estimated total employment in the nine selected sectors from the first round of QES is 3 crores and 8 lakhs approximately against a total of 2 crores and 37 lakhs in these sectors taken collectively, as reported in the sixth Economic Census (2013-14) reflecting a growth rate of 29 percent.

“Of the total employment estimated in the selected nine sectors, Manufacturing accounts for nearly 41 percent followed by Education with 22 percent, and Health 8 percent. Trade as well as and IT/BPO each engaged 7 percent of the total estimated number of workers.”,further informed the Union Minister.

Shri Yadav  mentioned that data on all aspects of labour is crucial. “Evidence-based policy making and statistics based execution is the major focus of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi” emphasised the Labour Minister saying that such scientifically collected data with purity and integrity that can be cross examined will be immensely beneficial towards achieving targeted and last mile delivery of government programmes and schemes.

Released the first report of Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey. Prime Minister Shri @NarendraModi ji's emphasis on evidence-based policy making and statistics-based execution will get a boost with more frequent Establishment based Employment Surveys.

— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) September 27, 2021

Sharing the findings on the pandemic induced employment retrenchment/ decline, the Labour Minister informed that it was found that the impact was evident in 27 percent of the establishments however the silver lining was that 81 percent of the workers received full wages during the lock-down period (March 25–June 30, 2020).

Key Highlights of the first round of Quarterly Employment Survey

•          The most impressive growth of 152 percent has been recorded in the IT/BPO sector, while growth rates in Health is 77 percent, in Education it is 39 percent, in Manufacturing it is 22 percent, in Transport it is 68 percent and in Construction it is 42 percent . However, employment in Trade came down by 25 percent and in Accommodation & Restaurant the decline was by 13 percent. Financial services saw a growth rate in employment of 48 percent.

•          Nearly 90 percent of the establishments have been estimated to work with less than 100 workers, the corresponding figure during EC 6 being 95 percent. Nearly 35 percent of the IT/ BPO establishments worked with at least 100 workers, including about 13.8 percent engaging 500 workers or more. In the Health sector, 18 percent of the establishments had 100 or more workers.

•          The over-all participation of female workers stood at 29 percent, slightly lower than 31 percent reported during 6th EC.

•          Regular workers constitute 88 percent of the estimated workforce in the nine selected sectors, with only 2 percent being casual workers. However, 18 percent of workers in the Construction sector are contractual employees and 13 percent are casual workers.

•          Only 9 percent of the establishments (with at least 10 workers) were not registered with any authority or under any act. While 26 percent of all the establishments were registered under the Companies Act with 71 percent registration in IT/ BPO, 58 percent registration in Construction, 46 percent in Manufacturing, 42 percent in Transport, 35 percent in Trade and 28 percent in Financial  Services.     

•          Around 18 percent of the establishments have provision of on-job skill training programmes.

There are two components under AQEES, Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) and Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES). QES has been initiated to compile relevant data from about 12,000 establishments selected through a sampling design to represent each of the nine sectors within each state/ Union Territory, as also each size-class (range of number of workers) within each sector-State/ UT.

Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES) covers the unorganised segment (with less than 10 workers) through a sample survey. AQEES will provide a consolidated picture with both the organised and the unorganised segments of the non-farm economy. The first round of QES had a reference date of April 1, 2021 for the different items of information about an establishment.

The results on the first round of “Quarterly Employment Survey” April- June 2021)is an very important to give insights into the concepts, definitions and sampling design adopted for estimation of sectoral employment estimates. This will serve as a useful data for policy-makers, Central/ State Governments officials, researchers and other stakeholders.

Click here for full report

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GK