Employment and Unemployment Situation in India: 2005 –06- Report No.522 based on the data of 62nd round survey of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, has been released.

The field work of the survey was carried out during July 2005-June 2006.. This report provides some broad features of employment and unemployment situation in India and some characteristics associated with them at the national and state levels. Information regarding participation in public works was collected for the first time in this round  for persons of age 15 years and above  in the rural areas. No separate estimate is provided for small states and union territories due to their small sample size and instead the estimates have been provided for a group of States / union territories.        

The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union except (i) Leh (Ladakh) and Kargil districts of Jammu & Kashmir, (ii) interior villages of Nagaland situated beyond 5km from the bus routes and (iii) villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year.

The survey was spread over 4,798 villages and 5,125 urban blocks covering 78,879 households (37,975 in rural areas and 40,904 in urban areas) and enumerating 3,77,377 persons (1,86,571 in rural areas and 1,90,806 in urban areas).

The earlier survey, NSS 61st round covering a five-year period in 2004-05, was spread over 7,999 villages and 4,602 urban blocks covering 124,680 households (79,306 in rural areas and 45,374 in urban areas) and covered 602,833 people.

The main characteristics associated with employment, unemployment are broadly comparable at the national level. However, at state / union territory level comparison of the results of this round with the quinquennial  round on some of the characteristics needs to be attempted with due caution.

Some of the important findings of the survey contained in this report are given below:
About 74 per cent of the households belonged to rural India and accounted for nearly 76 per cent of the total population.

In rural areas, about 79 per cent of the households possessed some kind of 'ration card'. This percentage was lower at 68 in urban areas.

Literacy rate for population of all ages was about 66 per cent for male and 47 per cent for female, in the rural areas. The corresponding literacy rates for urban areas, were 82 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.

• About 50 per cent of the persons in the age group 5-29 years were currently attending educational institutions – 49 per cent in rural areas and 53 per cent in urban areas. According to the usual status (primary and secondary school levels), about 56 per cent of rural males and 31 per cent of rural females belonged to the labour force. The corresponding proportions in the urban areas were 57 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.
• In rural India, more than half of the usually employed ('all' workers) were self-employed – 57 per cent among males and nearly 62 per cent among females. The corresponding figures in urban India were 42 for male and 44 for female.
• The percentage of regu­lar wage / salaried employees was relatively lower among females as compared to males in both rural and urban India (figures being 10 for male and 4 for female in the rural areas, and 42 for male and 40 for female in the urban areas ).
  The proportion of female casual labourer was about 1 percentage point higher than that of male casual labourer   in both rural and urban areas.
• In rural India, among 'all' usually employed, about 65 per cent of the male and 81 per cent of the female were engaged in the primary sector (excluding mining and quarrying), the proportion in the 'secondary sector (including mining and quarrying)' being 17 per cent for male and 12 per cent for female while the proportion in the 'tertiary' (NIC-2004 industry division: 50-99) sector –is 18 per cent among male and  7 per cent among female.
• In urban India, the 'tertiary' sector engaged about 59 per cent of the male workers while the 'secondary' sector accounted for about 34 per cent of the usually employed males.  For female, the corresponding figures were lower: 52 and 33, respectively. Proportion of urban male and female employed in the primary sector was 6 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.
• The average wage rate for regular wage / salaried employees in rural areas was Rs138.74 for male and Rs87.71 for female. The corresponding wage rates in the urban areas were Rs205.81 for the male and Rs158.23 for the female.
• In the rural areas, on an average, Rs59.29 was earned in a day by a male casual labourer whereas a female casual labourer earned Rs37.97 in a day, in the urban areas male casual labourer in earned Rs80.70 in a day and a female, Rs44.57 in a day.
• According to the usual status approach, the unemployment rate in the rural areas was around 2 per cent (for male nearly 3 per cent and for female nearly 2 per cent) . In urban area the unemployment rate was 5 per cent (for male nearly 5 per cent and for female nearly 8 per cent).
• The unemployment rate obtained by any of the approaches was higher for females than that for the males in the urban area bunion territory it was lower than that for males in the rural area.
• Among educated persons, (with education level secondary and above), in the age group 15 – 29 years, the unemployment rate in rural and urban area was 12 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
• The proportion of usually employed male who were found to be not employed during the week preceding the date of survey, termed as visible underemployment rate, was 5 per cent in the rural and 2 per cent in the urban area. Compared to males, the problem of underemployment was more serious among the usually employed female, particularly in the rural area. Among them, the underemployment rate was as high as 18 per cent in the rural and 8 per cent in the urban area.
• The proportion of person-days without work of the usually employed was about 35 per cent and 18 per cent for female in rural and urban India, respectively as against 11 and 5 per cent for male in rural and urban India, respectively.
• The percentage of person-days on which persons with some work during the reference week (according to current weekly status) were without work was  about 6 for rural male, 21 for rural female, 3 for urban male and 11 for urban female.
• The rate of under-employment was thus found higher in rural than urban, and higher for female than for male under the three approximations.
• Among the persons of age 15 years and above in the rural area, only 5 per cent got public works, 7 per cent sought bunion territory did not get public works and nearly 88 per cent did not even seek work in public works. For male, nearly 6 per cent got public works, 8 per cent sought bunion territory did not get public works and 85 per cent did not seek work in public works. The corresponding figures for female were, 3, 6 and 91 respectively.
• The average number of days worked in public works, during the last 365 days, by male and female was almost the same- 17 for male and 18 for female.
  Average wages received per day, for work in public works, was Rs.56 for male and Rs54 for female.
• To have an idea about the type of information presented in this report, per 1000 distribution of persons by broad usual activity (principal + subsidiary) status for major states, group of union territories. and group of north-eastern states is given separately for male and female  in the Annex.

Table 2: Per 1000 distribution by broad 'usual' activity (principal + subsidiary) status for each State, Group of U.Ts. and Group of North-Eastern States