Determinants of Employment Situation in Large agglomerations in India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Tripathi, Sabyasachi (2016): Determinants of Employment Situation in Large agglomerations in India: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Employment generation and skill development in urban India are the top priorities in the nation’s development agenda by the present government of India. It is expected that the successful execution of two important current policies such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘100 smart city projects’ will facilitate large-scale employment in urban based manufacturing sector by providing adequate physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure facilities. However, in the absence of a planned implementation strategy, these policies may not achieve our employment generation dream. In this perspective, the present paper mainly tries to explore the three important issues: first, it analyzes the employment situation in different size/class of cities in urban India; second, by focussing on 52 large urban agglomerations in India and using latest unit level National Sample Survey data for the year of 2011-12 on employment and unemployment, it investigates the relevant city specific determinants of city employment (measured by work-force participation rate (WPR)). Finally, reviewing current and past policies in India, it proposes the best policies which we need to consider for generation of higher employment in urban India. The analyses show that though urban India has been witnessing an increase in the number of total job opportunities, WPR in the large cities have declined over the years. The regression results show that indicators like city-wise average land owned by a person, city-wise percentage of persons receiving any vocational training, percentage of persons currently registered with any placement agency, city size population and city output growth have a positive and statistically significant effect on city-wise WPR. On the other hand, city wise percentage of people literate without formal schooling has a negative and statistically significant effect on city-wise WPR. Review of past and current policies suggest that steps are taken hitherto were mainly for data generation on urban employment unemployment situation, enhancement of skill of the labourer by establishing skill and vocational or technical training centres, increase of skilled employment opportunities and improvement of welfare of the worker, and aimed at directly increasing employment. Finally, the paper suggests that India needs a planned strategy to implement current policies to generate employment opportunities in urban India that would increase the welfare content of the economy as a whole. This paper therefore puts forth certain steps to strengthen the implementation mechanisms for executing the current employment generation policies in urban India.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Urban Agglomeration, employment, urban India
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics

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