India's covid-year employment spike led by agriculture: RBI Data
RBI) recent analysis of employment data for the pandemic year 2020-21 has revealed significant increases in employment within agriculture and allied activities, construction, health, and social welfare. This report, which measures productivity across 27 sectors, has sparked debate due to the unexpected rise in employment during a year marked by severe economic downturns, resulting from COVID-19.
According to RBI's report released last week, there was an 18.5 million increase in employment in agriculture and allied services, while the construction sector saw a 4.8 million rise. These figures align with the real gross value added (GVA) in agriculture, which grew by 4%, against an overall GVA contraction of 4.1%.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the report, stating, «80 million new jobs were created during the last three-four years,» adding that this should silence those perpetuating false narratives about the lack of job creation.
The KLEMS database, used by RBI and compiled from multiple data sources, indicates much of the employment growth in the farm sector can be attributed to self-employment, as many people returned to their villages following the nationwide lockdown in late March 2020.
Employment in the health and social work sectors rose by 1.3 million during the pandemic year due to increased demand for health services. Contact-intensive manufacturing saw job growth of about 1 million. However, the education sector experienced the steepest decline, with a reduction of 1.2 million
