Over half of India's working-age population not in labour force: NSSO Survey

More than half of India's working-age population (those over 15 years but below 64 years) are not contributing to any economic activity. This is one of the controversial findings from the jobs survey carried out by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).

The findings of this survey have been withheld by the government and two senior members of the Statistics Commission have quit in protest.

The survey suggested that the labour force participation rate (LFPR), which determines the percentage of people who are either working or looking for work, was 49.8 percent in 2017-18, down from 55.9 percent in 2011-12 and 63.7 percent in 2004-05, Business Standard reported.

"It's a serious cause of worry as you are unable to utilise the demographic dividend factor -- especially keeping in mind the fact that 65 percent of the population is in the working age group," Radhika Kapoor, Fellow, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, said.

Between 2011-12 and 2017-18, active labour force for females declined by twice in the age group 15 years and above. In the same time period, the LFPR for females plunged around eight percentage points to 23.3 percent.

In comparison, the LFPR for males was down four percentage points to 75.8 percent in 2017-18. This shows that only about 25 percent of India's females were actively working or seeking jobs in 2017-18.

Rural areas saw a steeper fall in the LFPR than in urban areas, with the former falling from 67.7 percent to 58.7 percent and the latter falling from 49.3 percent to 47.6 percent in the period between 2011-12 to 2017-18.

"Education plays a big role in the declining size of the labour force. But case studies and field reports also suggest that lack of suitable work, especially for women, is not readily available. Flexibility in work timings and proximity to their households are an important factor for females," said Amit Basole, Head of the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

Female LFPR declined sharply by more than 11 percentage points in rural areas, while it remained almost the same in urban areas.

The unemployment rate among the youth was in the range of 13.6-27.2 percent, up two-three times from 2011-12 levels.