Quarterly Employment Survey (April to June 2021)

  • 28 Sep 2021

On 27th September 2021, the Ministry of Labour and Employment 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.

Findings

  • Total Employment: 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.
  • Sectoral Performance: 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.
  • Pandemic Induced Employment Retrenchment/ Decline: 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

  • Impressive Growth: 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.
  • No of Workers to Establishment: 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.
  • Participation of Female Workers: The over-all participation of female workers stood at 29 percent, slightly lower than 31 percent reported during 6th EC.
  • Regular & Casual Workers: 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.
  • Formal/Non-Formal Establishments: 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.
  • Skill Training: Around 18 percent of the establishments have provision of on-job skill training programmes.