'Jobs' vs 'Employment': How Govt Switches Terms to Hide Reality of Job Creation

The Modi government has been using "jobs" and "employment" interchangeably. What's the reason behind it?

(Jobs andemployment are often used interchangeably)

(Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Employment and jobs are not the same thing. The difference is important and it is impacting the collection of data on the reality of India's job situation. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Here's what the government has been saying.

Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has called for redefining the concept of jobs to include women working at home and self-employed individuals. Speaking at the CII Conference on "Future of Jobs - Shaping Tomorrow's Workforce" on January 15, Mandaviya questioned why women are only considered employed when working outside their homes, despite their significant contributions to tasks like livestock care and farming. He echoed similar sentiments in December 2024, telling The Economic Times that “India’s youth is its strength, and we need to adjust the definition of jobs to include self-employment as per our needs.”

In July 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at an event in Mumbai's Goregaon, referred to an RBI report and claimed that India had created eight crore jobs over the past three to four years. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh responded by accusing the government of using "statistical jugglery" to inflate job creation claims.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment, in its official press release on the same report, used the term "employment" instead of "jobs." It stated, “Based on PLFS and RBI's KLEMS data, India generated over 8 crore (80 million) employment opportunities between 2017-18 and 2021-22, averaging more than 2 crore (20 million) employment per year.” This difference in terminology—“job” used by the PM versus “employment” in the press release—has drawn attention.

The terms job, employment, and self-employment are often used interchangeably in general discourse and on political platforms, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally.

But, On February 9, 2023, the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister remarked, "Employment was also discussed here. I am surprised that those who claim to have spent the longest in public life do not recognize the difference between a job and employment. It is ironic that those who fail to understand this distinction are trying to lecture us!"

"No Official Definition," Says Govt

The distinction between "job" and "employment" is often acknowledged, but what truly sets them apart? To explore this, I filed an Right to Information (RTI) query with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, requesting official definitions for these terms. The query was forwarded to the National Statistical Office (NSO), which, surprisingly, responded that no official definitions exist for either "job" or "employment."

This lack of definition and the absence of a formal system to track job creation or loss highlights a significant gap in how India monitors employment trends. In its place, EPFO enrollment data is often used as a proxy to gauge the job situation. As of now, there are approximately 7 crore active EPFO members. However, the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) estimates that around 65 crore people are employed in India. This stark contrast reveals that only about 10% of the employed population, primarily in the organised sector, has access to social security through EPFO—underscoring the difference between having a "job" and being "employed."

Dipa Sinha, a development economist, explained the difference between employment, jobs, and the labor force in simple terms. She said, "The term 'Labor Force Participation' (LFP), defined by the NSO, is officially used to represent employment. LFP includes self-employment, which makes up 50% of it. If self-employment is excluded, the employment numbers would drop significantly. Employment is measured using the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS), and technically, there is no official term called 'job'."

As per the Cambridge dictionary, Employment is defined as the fact of someone being paid to work for a company or organisation. And Job is - the regular work that a person does to earn money.

The key distinction between a job and employment lies in the nature of work: a job refers to "regular work." However, politicians often prefer using the term "job" instead of "employment" to shape their narrative.

Anupam, Founder of Yuva Hallabol, shared a similar perspective. He said, "Employment is about livelihood, while a job provides a sense of permanence in livelihood. Politicians often use these terms interchangeably—sometimes knowingly, other times out of ignorance." He further added, "It's not just politicians; even the media frequently conflates these terms."

He has a point to some extent. Lok Sabha MP Dharambir Singh asked about the number of employment opportunities created under the Mega Food Park Scheme. In response, Minister Prahlad Singh Patel stated that around 6,66,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities have been generated by the 22 operational Mega Food Parks. While both the question and answer used the term "employment," the media reported it as "jobs."

When launching the Green Highways Policy, Nitin Gadkari claimed it would create around 5 lakh jobs in the coming years. Interestingly, the Ministry’s website uses the term "employment" instead of "jobs." It states that the policy aims to balance highway development with environmental protection while providing employment to 5 lakh rural people. However, the 42-page policy document itself makes no mention of the 5 lakh figure, neither job nor employment.

How Does This Impact Policy?

The lack of an official definition for the term "job" by the NSO allows politicians to use it freely in public addresses, often without clarity or precision. For instance, in August 2024, Piyush Goyal claimed that the leather and footwear industry could increase employment from the current 40 lakh to 1 crore jobs. Interestingly, both "employment" and "jobs" were used interchangeably in the same sentence, highlighting the lack of clarity in their usage.

A great example to illustrate the difference between a "job" and "employment" is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of 2005. This program provides 100 days of guaranteed employment, which is temporary in nature and, therefore, does not qualify as a "job." Interestingly, despite this distinction, the Act uses the term "Job Card" instead of "Employment Card" for citizens enrolling in the scheme!

Another term often associated with MGNREGA is "man-days." When two individuals work for 75 days each under MGNREGA, it is reported as 150 man-days (2 x 75). While the figure of 150 may seem significant, the reality is that it represents only 75 days of work for two people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this term frequently made headlines. Railways generated over a million man-days of employment under the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan, A big claim made by news headlines.  However, this could mean that 10 lakh individuals were provided just a single day of work. The use of "man-days" as a metric often inflates the perceived scale of employment, making the numbers appear larger than the reality.

A recent addition to the evolving terminology around work is "Gig Work." While it may be a new entrant in common parlance, the Government of India has officially defined it. According to The Code on Social Security, 2020, a "gig worker" is someone who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns income outside the traditional employer-employee relationship. 

Let’s revisit Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s statement, where he emphasized the need to redefine the concept of jobs and include the self-employed in the definition of Job. Mandaviya highlighted the disparity in recognizing women’s contributions, questioning why a woman is considered employed only when she works in someone else’s home but not her own. He argued that many women engage in productive activities within households, such as caring for cattle or working on farms, and should therefore be acknowledged as self-employed individuals.

Interestingly, The Code on Social Security, 2020 not only defines gig workers but also includes clear definitions for "home-based worker" and "unorganised worker." A home-based worker is defined as someone engaged in producing goods or providing services for an employer from their home or another location of their choice, outside the employer’s workplace. An "unorganised worker," on the other hand, includes home-based workers, self-employed individuals, or wage workers in the unorganised sector, as well as workers in the organised sector who are not covered under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or Chapters III to VII of this Code. Therefore, the Labour Minister’s argument that the labor of women and self-employed individuals is overlooked does not entirely hold, as they are already recognized under distinct categories of work.

The root of the problem lies in the government’s inability to create jobs or implement effective policies to generate employment. As a result, it resorts to strategies designed to create the illusion of progress on this front. The same happened in 2018. In 2018, the report "Towards a Payroll Reporting in India" by Pulak Ghosh and Soumya Kanti Ghosh ignited a debate on India's jobless growth. At that time, the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman stated that jobs were being created but not counted due to the lack of credible recent surveys. The NITI Aayog CEO emphasized the need for a robust framework to track job creation, achievable only through payroll reporting. In an interview with ET NOW, he noted that 98.6% of enterprises were excluded from the Labour Bureau's data, missing new job creation. 

However, Six years later, NITI Aayog, India's premier think tank, has yet to make any formal recommendations to the government to establish such a mechanism which can report job creation, according to an RTI reply I received.

U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the job generation data in the economy on a regular basis, while there is  no such mechanism in India.Given the informal nature of India’s economy, this is challenging. However, there should be clear definitions for jobs, employment, and gig work. India also needs a system to track the creation and loss of jobs, employment, and gig work. Only with such a mechanism can politicians be held accountable for their statements and promises to citizens.

(Suchak Patel is an independent journalist).

(We, at The Quint, will continue to report on joblessness, layoffs, job scams and labour trafficking looming over India's youth. You can participate in our campaign too. Become a member of The Quint to read all job-related stories and also write to us about issues that matter to you.)