West Bengal lost 3 million jobs in unorganised sector over 7 years, NSO data reveals
Kolkata: West Bengal witnessed loss of as many as 3 million jobs from 2015-16 to 2022-23, while Maharashtra gained 2.4 million workers in unincorporated enterprises, making them the worst- and best-performing states, respectively, media reported, citing government data.
The National Statistical Office published the latest Annual Survey on Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) report for 2021-22 and 2022-23 on Friday, reported Business Standard.
Comparing this data with the National Sample Survey's 73rd round for 2015-16 revealed that 13 of 28 states and three Union Territories experienced a decrease in informal sector workers between 2015-16 and 2022-23.
Besides West Bengal, other states that lost jobs include Karnataka (1.3 million), Tamil Nadu (1.2 million), Uttar Pradesh (791,000), Andhra Pradesh (677,000), Kerala (640,000), Assam (494,000), and Telangana (344,000).
Among Union Territories, the number of workers in unincorporated enterprises in Delhi decreased by nearly 300,000, falling from 2.3 million to 1.99 million during the same period.
Chandigarh saw a decline of 51,000 workers, and Puducherry lost 32,000 workers. Comparable data for the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are not available.
Conversely, Maharashtra, Gujarat (762,000), Odisha (761,000), and Rajasthan (756,000) experienced an increase in the number of workers in the informal sector.
Earlier in June, Business Standard reported, based on a fact sheet for ASUSE, that the total number of workers employed in India's vast informal sector declined by 1.7 million, from 109.6 million in the pre-pandemic period of 2015-16 to 2022-23.
Labour economist Santosh Mehrotra explains that states with a larger non-farm sector or a relatively larger industrial base have more unincorporated enterprises. The decline in employment opportunities provided by these units is significantly linked to successive policy-induced shocks in recent years.
“In the non-farm sector, these unincorporated units are the biggest providers of employment. While the total number of establishments may have increased after the pandemic, it is primarily due to an increasing number of own-account enterprises. These units do not generate jobs, so the total number of workers employed remains low,” he was quoted as saying by Business Standard.
In the Indian context, the unincorporated sector is important because of the large number of establishments in this sector and the magnitude of employment it provides to unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled persons, besides its contribution to the gross domestic product of the country.
These enterprises typically include small businesses, vendors, hawkers, sole proprietorships, partnerships, and other businesses that are not incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, or the Companies Act, 2013.
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