India added over 4 million jobs in one year driven by the hotel and tourism industry followed by some increase in the manufacturing sector, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said.
According to CMIE, the total workforce in India in May 2023 stood at 408 million compared to 403.9 million, an addition of around 4.1 million jobs in the last one year.
“The largest addition of jobs was in the services sector, followed by industry. The agricultural sector, however, witnessed a fall in employment in the past year,” it said in its weekly labour market analysis.
“India’s employment numbers for May 2023 suggest that over the past year, there has been a commendable addition of jobs in the services sector. This increase is driven specifically by the hotel and tourism industry where employment has displayed an upward trend suggesting a reversal towards pre-pandemic levels,” it added.
CMIE data shows that the services sector registered a marked increase in employment between May 2022 and May 2023 from 149.2 million to 157.9 million while jobs in industry increased from 108.5 million to 109.6 million.
On the other hand, the agriculture workforce fell from 146.1 million to 140.1 million, it said.
According to CMIE, the number of jobs in the services sector recorded a jump of 8.7 million or 5.7 per cent in this period, taking the share of the services sector in total employment to 38.5 per cent as against 36.8 per cent a year ago.
“Within services, the hotel and tourism industry added 5.4 million jobs in one year followed by the healthcare industry, which added around 1.8 million jobs,” it said.
Employment in industry increased by a little over one million between May 2022 and May 2023 with the employment growth in this sector lower than one per cent, CMIE said. “As a result of this passable growth, employment share of industry remained flat at 27.41 per cent,” it said.
While manufacturing added over 3 million jobs in the last one year, utilities saw an addition of over 87 thousand people gaining employment between May 2022 and May 2023.
“However, there was a decline of close to two million in the number of employed persons in the real estate and construction sector, which is generally the largest absorber of labour within industry while the mining sector witnessed a decline of 0.13 million and the number of employed people in agriculture fell by six million,” it added.
India’s employment numbers for May 2023 suggest that over the past year, there has been a commendable addition of jobs in the services sector and despite the employment share of industry remaining stagnant in the past year, employment in this sector has been on a path of repairing with its pre-pandemic levels, CMIE concluded.
