A Tale of Two Demographies: Employment Outcomes and Gender Differentials in India, 2017-18 to 2018-19

Between 2018-19 and 2017-18, unemployment rates fell for all categories except urban males. There was an increase in the WPR for all employment categories except urban males. Countering a trend visible since 2004-05, the WPR rose by 1.5 percentage points for rural women.

On the misclassification of employment status data in the ILOSTAT Database

In this piece we highlight a methodological problem with the ILOSTAT data on “Employment by status in employment​” which gives the proportions of workers engaged in self-employment and wage employment across countries. These cross-country data appear to have mis-categorised casual wage workers as self-employed workers in the Indian case.

What the numbers don’t tell us: Looking beyond standard measures of employment during an economic lockdown

In the context of unique circumstances like the pandemic-induced economic lockdown, standard employment metrics do not convey the full extent of employment distress. Supplementing reported activity status with other metrics such as earnings as well as hours worked will provide a better understanding of the extent and nature of work participation in the economy.