Unemployment in an Era of Jobless Growth

This paper focuses on the nature and characteristics of unemployment using the five-yearly surveys of the NSSO. The dominant narrative in the literature has been that the rate of unemployment, whichever way it is measured, has been low and stable in India, unlike internationally. Although it appears that not much has changed, this paper examines some changes that deserve attention: Differentials between various measures of unemployment have also become smaller, pointing to a decline in underemployment. Male-female and rural-urban rates of unemployment have narrowed. The proximate factors behind these narrowing differentials are complex and inter-related, from both the demand and supply side. Female workforce participation rates are declining in rural India but are stable in urban India. Does this reflect a U shape in female participation? There is a shift away from agriculture but this is largely to non-agricultural activities in rural India. Casualisation and marginalisation of the rural and urban workforce has increased, contributing to narrower rural-urban unemployment rates. A large proportion of those who were unemployed, in fact, had marginal work in their last employment. They also faced a longer duration of unemployment