CBSE Class 11 Economics Employment Growth Informalisation and other Issues Worksheet

EMPLOYMENT: GROWTH, INFORMALISATION AND OTHER ISSUES

Important concepts
• Work plays an important role in our lives as an individual and as members of society.
• A worker is an individual, who is involved in some productive activity, to earn a living.
• Labour force: All persons, who are working (have a job) and those are not working but able to work and willing to work at the existing wage rate constitutes labour force.
• Labour Force =Persons working + persons seeking and/or available for work.
• Work force: The number of persons, who are actually employed at a particular time are known as workforce. It includes all those persons who are actually engaged in productive activities. This includes person between age group of 15-60 years.
• Labour supply: It refers to various amount of labour that workers are willing to work, corresponding to a particular wage rate.
• Work Force Participation Rate (Ratio): - It is measured as the ratio between workforce and total population of a country.
= (workforce / total population) × 100

Types of workers:
a) Self Employed: - The worker who own and operate an enterprise to earn their livelihood are known as self-employed.
b) Hired workers: - Those people who are hired by others and are paid wages or salaries as a reward for their services are called hired workers.

1. Casual Workers: - Those people, who are not hired by their employers on a regular/permanent basis and do not get social security benefits are said to be casual workers.
2. Regular Workers (Salaried): – When a worker is engaged by someone or by an enterprise
and paid his or her wages on a regular basis, they are known to as regular salaried employees or regular workers.
➢ About two-fifth of the total population in the country is engaged in various economic activities.
➢ Men particularly rural men, form the major section of workforce in India.
➢ Majority of workers in India are self-employed. Casual wage labourers and regular salaried employees. together account for less than half the proportion of India’s workforce.
➢ About three fifth of India’s workforce depends on agriculture and other allied activities as the major source of livelihood.

Jobless Growth: It is defined as a situation where GDP grows faster than the employment opportunities resulting in unemployment.
Casualization and informalisation of employment: Casualization refers to a situation when the percentage of casually hired workers in the total workforce tends to rise over time.
Informalisation: Refers to a situation when people tend to find employment more in informal sector of the economy, and less in formal sector of the economy.
Unemployment: It is a situation where a person is ready and willing to work at the prevailing wage-rate but doesn’t get work.
Unemployment Rate: It is calculated as percentage of labour force who are unemployed, not as percentage of total population
Number of person unemployed/Size of labour force × 100

Types of unemployment:
1. Rural unemployment a. Seasonal Unemployment b. Disguised Unemployment
2. Other types of unemployment a. Open b. Frictional c. Structural d. Cyclical
3. Urban Unemployment a. Industrial Unemployment b. Educated Unemployment c. Technological Unemployment

a) Frictional unemployment is defined as the unemployment that occurs because of people moving or changing occupations.

b) Structural unemployment is defined as unemployment arising from technical change such as automation, or from changes in the composition of output due to variations in the types of products people demand. For example, a decline in the demand for typewriters would lead to structurally unemployed workers in the typewriter industry.

c) Cyclical unemployment is defined as workers losing their jobs due to business cycle fluctuations in output, i.e. the normal up and down movements in the economy as it cycles through booms and recessions over time.

d) Open Unemployment refers to that situation wherein the worker is willing to work and has the necessary ability to work yet he does not get work and remains unemployed for full time.

e) Seasonal Unemployment: - It refers to a situation where a number of people that are not able to find a job in a particular season.

f) Disguised unemployment is a kind of unemployment in which some people look like being employed but are actually not employed fully. This situation is also known as Hidden Unemployment. In such a situation more, people are engaged in a work than required. In other words, it refers to a situation of employment with surplus manpower in which some workers have zero marginal productivity. For example, in rural areas, this type of unemployment is generally found in agricultural sector.

g) Technological Unemployment: - A somewhat structural unemployment may take place in an economy as a result of technological improvement. Such unemployment may be described as technological
unemployment. Due to the introduction of new machinery, improvement in methods of production, labor-saving devices etc., some workers tend to be replaced by machines. Their unemployment is termed as “technological unemployment.”

h) Educated Unemployment: - Among the educated people, apart from open unemployment, many are underemployed because their qualification does not match the job. Faulty education system, mass output, preference for white collar jobs, lack of employable skills and dwindling formal salaried jobs are mainly responsible for unemployment among educated youths in India. Educated unemployment may be either open or underemployment.

Causes of unemployment:
a. Slow rate of economic growth
b. Population explosion
c. Underdeveloped agriculture
d. Defective educational system
e. Slow growth of Industry
f. Decline of cottage and small industry.
g. Faulty planning
h. Inadequate employment planning.
i. Low capital formation.
j. Excessive use of Foreign Technology
k. Lack of financial resources
l. Increase in labour force

Remedial measures for unemployment:
a. Accelerating growth rate of GDP
b. Control of population growth c. Development to small scale enterprises. d. Encouragement in infrastructure. e. Special employment programmes. f. Rapid industrialisation.

Special programmes to fight poverty and unemployment:

1. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA)
"Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act" or MGNREGA), is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. This act was passed in 23 August 2005 under the UPA government of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to at least one member of every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Women were guaranteed one third of the jobs made available under the MGNREGA.

2. Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) in India is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme which came into effect on 1 December 1997. The scheme strives to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed and underemployed poor, through encouraging the setting up of self-employment ventures or provision of wage employment. The SJSRY scheme is being implemented on a cost-sharing basis between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25.

3. Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana or DAY is one of the Government of India scheme for helping the poor by providing skill training. It replaces Aajeevika. The Government of India has provisioned ₹500 crores (US$66 million) for the scheme. The objective of the scheme is to train 0.5 million people in urban areas per annum from 2016. In rural areas the objective is to train 1 million people by 2017.

4. The initial scheme Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched in 1999. It was renamed as National Rural Livelihood Mission in 2011. Finally, they were merged into DDU-AY. The SGSY was somewhat intended to provide self-employment to millions of villagers. The programme aims at bringing the assisted poor families above the poverty line by organising them into self-help groups (SHGs) through a mix of bank credit and government subsidy. The main aim of these SHGs was to bring these poor families above the poverty line and concentrate on income generation through combined effort. The Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY) has been renamed as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). With this the scheme will be made universal, more focussed and time bound for poverty alleviation by 2014.

5. The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (English: Universal Rural Employment Programme) was a scheme launched by the Government of India to gain the objective of providing gainful employment for the rural poor. From 21 February 2003, EAS became an allocation-based scheme. The programme was implemented through the Panchayati Raj institutions. The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana was launched on 25 September 2001 by merging the provisions of Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY). The programme is self-targeting in nature and aims to provide employment and food to people in rural areas who lived below the poverty line. Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana is a combination of the provisions under the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY).

6. The Food for Work Programme was restructured and renamed as National Rural Employment Programme in October 1980 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and it became a regular Programme from April 1981. The Programme was launched during the Sixth Five Year Plan. It aims the implementation of additional employment to under employed persons. Central-state contribution was based on 50:50 ratio. In 1989 NREP was merged with Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.

7. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) was launched on April 1, 1989 by merging National Rural Employment Programme and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The urban version of this program was Nehru Rozgar Yojana.

MCQ Questions for NCERT Class 11 Economics Employment Growth Informalisation and other Issues

Question: Worker who are on permanent payroll of their employer are called
(a) Self-employed workers
(b) Casual workers
(c) Regular workers
(d)None of these 

Answer: C

Question: Percentage of population participating in production activity is called ……… .
(a) Labour force
(b)Workforce
(c) Labour supply
(d) Participation rate

Answer: D

Question: Data on unemployment in India can be obtained from which source?
(a) Reports of census of India
(b) National sample survey organisation
(c) Directorate general of unemployment
(d) All of the above 

Answer: D

Question: Agriculture labourers, farmers, owners of small enterprise which employ less than 10 workers fall in the category of
(a) formal sector
(b) informal sector
(c) casual workers
(d) regular workers 

Answer: B

Question: In which type of unemployment, the marginal productivity of an additional worker is zero?
(a) Disguised unemployment
(b) Involuntary unemployment
(c) Seasonal unemployment
(d) Structural unemployment 

Answer: A

Question: Which of the following correctly defines unemployment rate?
(a) Total Number of Employed/Total Labour Force× 100
(b)Total Labour Force/Total Number of Unemployed/× 1000
(c)Total Labour Force/Total Number of Employed× 1000
(d) None of the above 

Answer: A

Question: Two months ago, Shyam was working as part time salesman on commission basis in a company. Due to his excellent performance, company appointed him as a permanent sales manager on fixed monthly salary. From the point of view of employment currently he is a
(a) skilled worker
(b) regular salaried worker
(c) unskilled worker
(d) casual wage labour 

Answer: B

Question: Unemployment which occurs for the time period when workers move from one job to another job is known as ……… .
(a) Cyclical unemployment
(b) Seasonal unemployment
(c) Technological unemployment
(d) Frictional unemployment 

Answer: D

Question: Hired workers are those 
(a) who work for others
(b) who are not self-employed
(c) who are engaged in their own business
(d) Both (a) and (b) 

Answer: D

Question: Unemployment which occurs for the time period when workers move from one job to another job is known as ……… .
(a) Cyclical unemployment
(b) Seasonal unemployment
(c) Technological unemployment
(d) Frictional unemployment 

Answer: D

Question: A situation where percentage of work force in the formal sector tends to decline and that in the informal sector tends to rise as known as
(a) Informalisation
(b) Casualisation
(c) Jobless growth
(d) None of the above 

Answer: A

Question: If a person is ready to work at the prevailing wage rate in the market but he is unable to find the work,then what type of unemployment would it be called?
(a) Voluntary unemployment
(b) Involuntary unemployment
(c) Seasonal unemployment
(d) None of the above 

Answer: B

Question: If new computers are being installed in a company and some employees are fired from the job due to lack of computer knowledge, then what kind of unemployment will it be called?
(a) Disguised unemployment
(b) Structural unemployment
(c) Hidden unemployment
(d) Frictional unemployment 

Answer: B

Question: The ratio expressing percentage change in employment of labour in response to a percentage change in GDP growth is called ……… 
(a) Employment elasticity of growth
(b) Unemployment elasticity of growth
(c) Workforce participation rate
(d) Labour force participation rate 

Answer: A

Question: Which of the given unemployment is predominant in context of Indian agriculture?
(a) Structural unemployment
(b) Frictional unemployment
(c) Disguised unemployment
(d) All of the above 

Answer: C

Question: Which of the following is the main source of employment for majority of workers in India?
(a) Primary sector
(b) Secondary sector
(c) Tertiary sector
(d) All of the above 

Answer: A

Question: You are a factory owner and have given employment to 400 workers. If 10 workers are dismissed by you without loss of production then this situatioin will be described as
(a) casual unemployment
(b) disguised unemployment
(c) structural unemployment
(d) seasonal unemployment 

Answer: B

Question: Write the correct pair. 

Codes
(a) A-(i)
(b) B-(ii)
(c) C-(iii)
(d) D-(iv) 

Answer: D

Question: Which of the following correctly defines disguised unemployment?
(a) More number of workers are engaged in a particular work than required 
(b) Marginal productivity of an additional worker is close to zero
(c) Additional workers act as a hindrance towards the productivity of other workers implying diminishing returns
(d) All of the above 

Answer: D

Question: Which one is the cause of unemployment in India?
(a) Rapid growth of population
(b) Rising prices
(c) Increasing public expenditure
(d) Defective monetary policy 

Answer: A

Question: Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(i) A worker is an individual who is does some productive work to earn a living.
(ii) Majority of population in India is finding employment in the service sector which is growing at a fast pace and growing continuously.
Alternatives
(a) Both are true
(b) Both are false
(c) (i) is true, but (ii) is false
(d) (i) is false, but (ii) is true 

Answer: A

Question: The formula to calculate workforce participation ratio is:
(A) (workforce /Total population) X 100
(B) (Number of unemployed persons/Labour force) X 100
(C) Workforce+ number of people who are willing to work but are unemployed
(D) (workforce/ labour force) X 100

Answer : C

Question: The newly emerging jobs are found mostly in the _____________ sector.
(A) Service
(B) Manufacturing
(C) Agriculture
(D) None of the above

Answer : A

Question: The newly emerging jobs are found mostly in ___________ sector.
(A) Manufacturing
(B) Primary
(C) Service
(D) None of these

Answer : C

Question: Men get opportunity to work in:
(A) Primary sector
(B) Secondary sector
(C) Service sector
(D) Both (a) and (c)

Answer : D

Question: Electricity, gas and water supply belong to ___________ sector.
(A) Primary sector
(B) Secondary sector
(C) Tertiary sector
(D) All the above

Answer : B

Question: After the workers lost their jobs in 1980’s, which city experienced an economy recession and communal riots?
(A) Ahmedabad
(B) Bombay
(C) Allahabad
(D) Bangalore

Answer : A

Question: Those who work in their own establishment using their own resources are called _______.
(A) Hired workers
(B) Casual workers
(C) Regular workers
(D) Self-employed

Answer : D

Question: Unemployment is defined as:
(A) The section of the population that is not capable of being employed
(B) The section of population willing to work but unable to find employment
(C) The section of population that is waiting to be employed
(D) The section of population that are without the skills needed by employers

Answer : B

Question: Data on unemployment in India can be obtained from which source?
(A) Reports of Census of India
(B) National sample survey organisation(NSSO)
(C) Directorate general of employment
(D) All the above

Answer : D

Fill in The Blanks

Question: Some people look for jobs in newspapers, some look for a job through friends and relatives. In many cities, people standing in some select areas looking for people to employ them for that day’s work. Some go to factories and offices and give their bio-data and ask whether there is any vacancy in their factory or office. Some go to employment exchanges. The situation described in the above paragraph is called____________.
Answer: Open unemployment

Question: An establishment with four hired worker is known as ________ (formal/informal) sector establishment.
Answer: informal

Question: When there is no work to do on farms, people go to urban areas and look for jobs. This kind of unemployment is known as __________.
Answer: seasonal unemployment

Question: In India, about ___________ of the workforce are in the informal sector.
Answer: 94 per cent

Question: __________ account for __________ labourers are casually engaged in others’ farms and, in return, get a remuneration for the work done.
Answer: Casual wage labourers; 30%

Question: The nature of employment has become more _________________ (formal/informal) with only limited availability of social security measures to the workers.
Answer: Informal

Question: Women workers account for __________ of the rural workforce; whereas in urban areas, they are just ________ of the work force.
Answer: one-third;one-fifth

Assertion-Reasoning MCQs

(a) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
(b) Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
(c) Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false.
(d) Assertion (A) is false, but Reason(R) is true.

Question: Assertion (A) India is considered as favourite outsourcing destination leading to increase in foreign exchange reserve.
Reason (R) India’s growth rate of population is one major concern which makes this country labour cost efficient. 

Answer: A

Question: Assertion (A) Urban unemployment is a spillover of rural unemployment.
Reason (R) Owing to the lack of opportunities of employment, people in the rural areas are compelled to migrate to the urban areas in search
of livelihood. 

Answer: A

Question: Assertion (A) Entrepreneurial development has been considered necessary for generating self-employment opportunities.
Reason (R) It is therefore quintessential to enhance entrepreneurial ability of the people and aid them in preparation of financial, technical and professional reports. 

Answer: A 

Question: Assertion (A) Economic activity means production activity.
Reason (R) There is difference between production activity and economic activity. It is like this, economic activity relates to the use of scarce
of resources. 

Answer: D

Question: Assertion (A) Lack of training in farming activity leads to low productivity and growth of agriculture in India.
Reason (R) Reforms in India focused upon development of industries which was failed to generate enough employment. 

Answer: A

Question: Assertion (A) Primary sector is an important source of labour supply to the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy.
Reason (R) When productivity rises in agriculture (owing to the use of innovative technology), less labour is needed to produce a given level of output. 

Answer: A

Short Answer Type Questions

Question: (i) Victor is able to get work only for two hours in a day, rest of the day, he is looking for work. Is he unemployed? Why? What kind of jobs could persons like Victor be doing? 
(ii) Children are not considered a part of workforce. Given reason for the same.
Answer: (i) No, Victor is employed because he works for two hours daily for which he is paid. He is a casual worker. Victor might be doing jobs on a casual basis, such as painting a house, plumbing work, working as an electrician, distributing newspaper, milk, etc.
(ii) Working population includes able-bodied persons and adults. Children are unable to perform productive activities. Also, use of children in work is
equivalent to denying them their childhood, i.e.children right to playing.

Question: Why is employment considered so important in the Indian development policy?
Answer: Employment is considered so important in the Indian development policy because of the following reasons (i) More employment will lead to higher level of national income since, production and employment are directly related.
(ii) Employment is crucial for removal of poverty.

Question: ‘‘It is necessary to create employment in the formal sector rather than in the informal sector.’’ Defend or refute the given statement with valid arguments.
Answer:‘‘It is necessary to create employment in the formal sector rather than in the informal sector.’’ The statement is defended because workers of the formal sector enjoys social security benefits and job security which remain protected by the labour laws. On the other hand, people engaged in the informal sector do not enjoy any social security benefits and do not have job security. As a result,informal workers are generally very poor and live in
slums.

Question: Give the meaning of labour supply, labour force and workforce.
Answer: Labour supply refers to the number of persons willing to work at different wage rates. It depends upon the existing wage rate and is measured in terms of man-days.
Labour force refers to the number of persons actually working or willing to work. It does not depend upon the wage rate and is measured in terms of number of days.
Workforce refers to the numbers of persons actually working. This measure does not include those persons who are willing to work but are not getting work.

Question: The rate of women participation in workforce of rural areas is greater than urban areas. Do you agree? Justify.
Or Compared to urban women more rural woman are found working. Why? 
Answer: Yes, I agree with the given statement. The difference in participation rates is very high between urban and rural women. In urban areas, for every 100 urban females,only about 14 are engaged in some economic activities.
In rural areas, for every 100 rural women, about 26 participate in the employment market.
It is common to find that where men are able to earn high incomes, families discourage female members from taking up jobs. Earnings of urban male workers are generally higher than rural males and so urban families do not want females to work.
Apart from this, many activities of the households in which urban women are engaged, are not recognised as productive work, while women working on farms in the rural areas are considered a part of the workforce if they are being paid wages in cash or in the form of food grains.

Question: ‘‘Unemployment is related to poverty.’’ Comment.
Answer: Poverty and unemployment usually go together. Those who fail to get employment become a burden on the limited family income and thus, depress already low levels of consumption. Therefore, many programmes which aim at removing poverty provide employment opportunities to the poor like Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana, Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana, etc. Most of the urban poors are either unemployed or intermittently employed as casual labourers. Casual labourers are among the most vulnerable in society as they have no job security, no assets, limited skills, sparse opportunities and no surplus to sustain them. Poverty is therefore, closely related to unemployment.

Question: “Women in rural areas are ready to work even at low wages.” Comment.
Answer: The given statement is correct because of the following reasons
(i) There is widespread poverty in rural areas. Poverty compels the women in rural areas to accept low wage occupations.
(ii) Women in rural areas are averse to migration. They are reluctant/unwilling to migrate to urban areas for jobs. Owing to the lack of education, they are not even capable of finding jobs outside rural areas.
Accordingly, they prefer to be engaged in farm and non-farm activities but in the rural areas only.

Question:Low employment among women is a reflection of economic backwardness of a country. Suggest some measures for increased employment opportunities for women.
Answer: I shall suggest the following measures to increase the employment opportunities for women 
(i) Education and training opportunities for women should be further expanded, diversified and made easily accessible.
(ii) Residential accommodation for working mothers should be increased.
(iii) There should be much more facilities of creches and child care during the working hours of mothers.
(iv) There should be large scale publicity and building of public opinion in favour of employment of women.

Question: Why is unemployment in India considered to be a chronic problem?
Answer: Unemployment in India is considered to be a chronic problem because it has been a long-term phenomenon.
India is facing this problem ever since independence and has not yet been able to solve this problem. The absolute number of unemployed is increasing year by year. India has not been able to generate enough jobs due to lack of capital and low rate of growth in the industrial sector.

Question: Mention the salient features of the unemployment situation in India.
Answer: Following are some of the salient features of the unemployment situation in India
(i) The incidence of unemployment is much higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
(ii) Unemployment rates for women are higher than those for men.
(iii) Under employment is higher in case of women.
(iv) Incidence of unemployment among the educated is much higher.

Question: You are residing in a village. If you are asked to advise the village panchayat, what kinds of activities would you suggest for the improvement of your village which would also generate employment? 
Answer: I would suggest the following activities to generate employment in village
(i) There should be multiple cropping in the village.
(ii) Other activities related to agriculture such as plantation, etc. horticulture, dairying, animal husbandry, etc. should be encouraged.
(iii) Cottage industry should be encouraged.
(iv) More and more facilities of education, health services, roads, etc should be created in the village.

Question: What role does government play in generating employment opportunities?
Answer: The government generates employment through direct and indirect efforts. The government makes direct efforts at employing people in various departments for administrative purposes. It runs various enterprises and when the output of goods and services of these enterprises increase, it leads to further increase in employment.
The various private enterprises that are linked to the government enterprises might also benefit from increased output of these enterprises and thus, increase their output and employment also. This way government indirectly generates employment also.

Question: Why do people prefer to be voluntarily unemployed?
Answer: People prefer to be voluntarily unemployed for the below mentioned reasons 
(i) They do not want to work at the wages that are being offered.
(ii) They are not willing to migrate to the place at which job is being offered.
(iii) They think that the job offered is below their calibre.
While computing the level of unemployment in the country, people who prefer to be voluntary unemployed are not taken into consideration. This in turn would not inflate the unemployment statistic.

Question: “Unemployment in India is stubborn (almost permanent in nature) while in developed countries (like USA) it is critical.” Comment.
Answer: Unemployment in India is stubborn because it is related to the lack of production capacity which is lacking because of the lack of capital. The problem of lack of capital is a long period problem, and therefore stubborn in nature.
In developed countries like USA, unemployment is largely related to the lack of demand. Lack of demand is not stubborn, but cyclical in nature. This is why, the problem of unemployment in these countries is cyclical in nature.

Question: How is unemployment an economic as well as a social problem?
Answer: Unemployment is both an economic and a social problem. Unemployment is an economic problem in the sense that unemployed persons will be consumers only without being a producer. Non utilisation of human resources due to unemployment involves double cost of maintenance and loss of output.
Unemployment is a social problem in the sense that it causes enormous sufferings to unemployed workers due to their reduced or nil income. Many social evils like dishonesty, immorality, drinking, gambling, robbery, etc are the outcome of unemployment. It causes social disruption in the society and the government has to incur a heavy unproductive expenditure on law and order.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question: (i) Why are less women found in regular salaried employment?
(ii) Analyse the recent trends in sectoral distribution of workforce in India Trends in employment pattern (sector-wise),
                     1993 – 2012 (in %) 

 Answer: (i) Less woman are found in regular salaried employment due to the following reasons
(a) Lack of Education Facilities Female education is not given due importance in India and hence,majority of the woman in India do not have the
educational qualification and professional skills required.
(b) Discouragement from Family In India, families do not want the female member to step out from the house for work expecially if it is for long hours, as in
regular salaried employment.
(c) Family Responsibilities Women are expected to look after household chores including food, taking care of children. This posses a restriction for women
to be engaged in regular employment.
(ii) The given data indicates that over the given period, the proportion of workforce in primary sector has gone down significantly.Whereas, the employment share of both secondary sector and the service sector has increased gradually.
While the share of secondary sector has gone up by approximately 9% recently, the corresponding figure for service sector has gone up by approximately 7.1%.
This also shows that dependency on agriculture remained high as secondary and service sector wasn’t created enough employment. 

Question: (i) Comment upon the informalisation of labour force in India.
(ii) Define the worker population ratio.
Answer: (i) Informalisation of labour force in India implies that there is a continous rise in the percentage of workforce in informal sector as a percentage of
total work force and a corresponding decline in the percentage of workforce in formal sector. These sectors can be understood as follows
(a) Formal Sector All the public sector establishments and those private sector establishments which employ 10 or more hired workers, are known as formal sector establishments. Those who are working in this sector, enjoy social security benefits and they earn more than the informal sector employees.
(b) Informal Sector This sector includes all those private sector enterprises which employ less than 10 workers. This sector includes farmers,
agricultural labourers, owner of small enterprises etc. They are not entitled to any social security benefits.
(ii) Worker population ratio is an indicator which is used to analyse the employment situation in the country. It is measured as a ratio of workforce to total population of the country.
Worker Population = × Total Number of Workers/Total Population X100

Question: The following table shows distribution of workforce in India for the year 1972-73. Analyse it and give reasons for the nature of workforce distribution. 

Answer: From the given table, following points can be noticed about the nature of workforce distribution
(i) Majority of the workforce was residing in the rural areas in India in the year 1972-73. The total workforce was 233 million out of which 194 millionworkers were from rural areas and 39 million from the urban areas. Thus, 83% of the total workforce was rural as compared to 17% of the urban work- force.
The reason for this was that a majority of population was living in rural areas during that period.

(ii) The rural workforce comprises of 64% of the male workforce and 36% of female workforce. On the other hand, the urban workforce comprises of about 82% of male workforce and 18% of female workforce. This shows that participation of males in both rural as well as urban areas is higher than that of the females because of lack of opportunities available to women for acquiring education and also the social structure and family norms which did not encourage women to work.

(iii) Another feature of workforce distribution is the difference between urban female workforce and rural female workforce. Females in the rural areas formed 36 % of the workforce, whereas, the females in the urban areas formed only 18% of the workforce. This may be attributed to the fact that where men are able to earn high incomes, families discourage female members from taking up jobs.
Earnings of urban male workers are generally higher than rural males and so the urban families do not want females to work.
Thus, it can be concluded by analysing the above table that majority of the workforce was from the rural areas and there was low female participation rate in the workforce during that period.

Question: What should be the main elements of ‘employment policy’ in India in the present context?
Answer: Following should be the main elements of employment policy in India in the present context (i) The employment policy should emphasise on both complete and more productive employment.
(ii) Employment policy must have the objective of higher rate of capital formation.
(iii) Employment should be generated in the normal process of development.
(iv) Employment policy should give more emphasis to self-employment.
(v) Measures should be taken to increase employment opportunities for women.
(vi) Emergence of destabilising factors in the economy should be avoided through greater efficiency in planning.

Question: How is unemployment different from underemployment? How is unemployment measured in India?
Answer: Unemployment is a situation in which people are willing to work and capable to work, but still they are not getting work. Underemployment, on the other hand, is a situation in which an individual is working much below his potential. As per 27th round of NSSO, three types of estimates are available
(i) Usual Status Unemployment It is measured in number of persons who remained unemployed for a major part of the year.
(ii) Weekly Status Unemployment It is measured in number of personswho did not find anywork even for an hour during theweek proceeding the surveyweek.
(iii) Daily Status Unemployment Daily status unemployment is measured in terms of number of man days a person was not getting work on a day during the week proceeding the survey week.
Out of these three, the daily status unemployment concept is most appropriate because it takes into consideration both open and under employment.
Unemployment Rate by Daily Status = Daily Status Unemployment/Number of Man Days Available X100

Question: What is seasonal unemployment? Suggest measures for reducing this kind of unemployment in India.
Answer: It refers to a situation where a number of persons are not able to find job in a particular season. It occurs in case of agriculture, ice-cream factories, woollen factories, etc. Following measures may be suggested to reduce seasonal unemployment
(i) Promotion of multiple cropping, i.e., raising more than one crop on the same piece of land in a year.
(ii) Development of activities allied to agriculture such as animal husbandry, dairy farming, horticulture, etc to provide extra employment throughout the year.
(iii) Public investment in rural areas in such fields as irrigation, drainage, flood control, land and environment, improvement of rural roads, schools, hospitals, etc. 
(iv) Promotion of on-farm investment. Overhaul of machinery, training of farm labour and programmes for eradication of illiteracy during slack seasons.
(v) Mechanisation of peak season activities so that a proportion of the labour force is permanently shifted from agriculture to non-seasonal activities and surplus labour in the slack season is reduced.
(vi) Establishment of a variety of industries which operate at different times of the year so that labour may be kept employed almost throughout the year by shifting from one seasonal industry to another.