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Labor Markets in India: Issues and Perspectives

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Labor Markets in Asia

Abstract

Market-oriented structural reforms in India, begun in the 1980s and intensified in the 1990s, are widely believed to have put the economy on a path of higher growth. But there are concerns that outcomes in labor markets have not improved for large segments of the labor force. Many observers of India’s labor markets are bothered by the slow growth of employment in the organized sector—where the “good” jobs are. Despite growth of around 5% in GDP per capita between 1993/94 and 1999/2000, the share of the organized sector in total employment decreased from 7.3% to 7.1%.1 At the same time, jobs in the organized sector have themselves been undergoing a change, with contract labor getting a growing share of employment. More broadly, workers on daily or periodic contracts have increased their share of total wage and salary employment, in what some observers have described as the “casualization” of the Indian workforce.

The authors thank participants at the workshop, Labor Markets, Employment Growth, and Social Protection in India (7 October 2005, New Delhi), for their comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of the chapter. They also thank Jesus Felipe for useful discussions on labor market issues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Delhi, India

    T. C. A. Anant

  2. Economics and Research Department, Asian Development Bank, Philippines

    R. Hasan

  3. Department of History, University of Delhi, India

    P. Mohapatra

  4. Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, India

    R. Nagaraj

  5. V. V. Giri National Labour Institute, India

    S. K. Sasikumar

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  1. T. C. A. Anant
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  3. P. Mohapatra
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    Jesus Felipe  & Rana Hasan  & 

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Anant, T.C.A., Hasan, R., Mohapatra, P., Nagaraj, R., Sasikumar, S.K. (2006). Labor Markets in India: Issues and Perspectives. In: Felipe, J., Hasan, R. (eds) Labor Markets in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230627383_5

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