India's job market landscape presents a complex narrative, characterised by both positive indicators and underlying anxieties. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently published 'Measuring Productivity at the Industry Level-The India KLEMS [Capital (K), Labour (L), Energy (E), Material (M) and Services (S)] Database,' providing data on employment trends across 27 key industries in India. The database, spanning FY 1980-81 to 2022-23 aims to provide critical data points on economic output (GVA and GVO), worker skill levels (Labour Quality), capital investment (Capital Stock), and productivity measures (Labour Productivity and Total Factor Productivity).
A preliminary analysis of the KLEMS database suggests a job creation surge in India. The picture presented seems rosier than ever, considering the government’s underwhelming performance on employment creation thus far. According to the data, the economy witnessed the addition of nearly 4.67 crore jobs in FY 2023-24, reflecting a robust six percent growth rate. Consequently, the total number of employed individuals in India climbed to a substantial 64.33 crore. This positive trend appears to be supported, and objectively created to suit the government’s rhetorical narrative on employment, indicating the creation of over eight crore jobs between 2017-18 and 2021-22, averaging two crore jobs annually.