Beyond Job Creation: Understanding the Crisis of Employment Quality in India

Abstract

Although India is one of the world’s major emerging economies, the quality of employment remains relatively low and lags behind that of many other countries globally. In this context, this paper analyses India’s employment quality across rural-urban locations, social groups and gender, using a composite index based on certain dimensions of decent work as proposed by the International Labour Organisation.  The paper uses the nationally representative unit/individual-level data published by the Government of India. The main findings of the paper are: (a) not only the overall quality of employment in India is poor, but also there are significant differences across locations and social groups, i.e. significant deprivations of the disadvantaged, and (b) although the individual/household level factors, such as age, education, skills, social and religion identities are significant in explaining the variations in employment quality, intriguingly, at the macro-level (sub-national state-level), factors such as the overall volume of economic activities, extent of quality of governance, the flexibility of business regulatory environment and better labour-law compliance negatively influences the quality of employment. Thus, this paper suggests that while economic growth has been robust, it has not translated effectively into improvements in employment quality, indicating a need to better align development strategies with inclusive and decent work outcomes.