Mapping Distress

Context: The Periodic Labour Force Survey  PLFS (2019-20) points towards the steady build-up of distress in the labour market in India.

Concerning highlights of the PLFS 2019-20

• Increase in the labour force participation in agriculture: This implies that during this period of stress, agriculture emerged as an “employer of last resort”.
• Share of the labour force engaged in agriculture rose to 45.6 per cent in 2019-20, up from 42.5 per cent in 2018-19.
• Data on work demanded by households under MGNREGA indicates that the stress in the labour market remains higher than in pre-Covid times
• Increase women work informalisation: There has been an increase in the women labour force participation rate in the unpaid family labour and not in more productive forms of employment.
• While the increase is good considering the low female participation (24.5 %), however, the rise in unpaid family work.
• The employment rate for unpaid workers in the household enterprises in rural and urban areas increased to 15.9 per cent in 2019-20, from 13.3 per cent in 2018-19. 
• In the case of female workers, it increased from 30.9 per cent to 35 per cent over the period.
• This is indicative of rising underemployment.