The Hindu Business Line : Govt employment statistics under-reported by 20 pc

After 1997, the data on number of employed persons started registering a fall and, according to Labour Ministry officials, the closure of a large number of textile mills was one of the main reasons.

New Delhi , Nov. 2

REPORTS of stagnant employment generation in the organised sector under the liberalisation programme may not be totally correct. It now turns out that estimates of employment in the organised public and private sectors, as reported by the Directorate-General of Employment and Training (DGE&T) under the Ministry of Labour, do not reflect the total picture, according to Ministry officials.

The actual number of employed persons is quite higher. According to the officials, every year there is approximately 20 per cent under-reporting.

The data is compiled by the DGE&T based on information provided by the 945 employment exchanges all over the country.

According to the norms prescribed under the Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959 all establishments in the public and private sectors inform their respective local employment exchange, on a quarterly basis, about the number of persons employed in their organisation.

According to Labour Ministry estimates, there are around two lakh such establishments. Of this, around 1.6 lakh establishments provide the required information on a quarterly basis, while the remaining 20 per cent ignore the practice because there is no penalty involved.

But Ministry officials pointed out that the basic trend is captured in the statistics prepared by the DGE&T.

Since 1990, as economic liberalisation began, the number of employed persons started increasing. The total number of employed persons in 1990 stood at 263.53 lakh. This figure kept increasing till 1997, when the number of employed persons reached 282.45 lakh.

After 1997, the data on number of employed persons started registering a fall, and according to Labour Ministry officials, closure of large number of textile mills was one of the main reasons. The latest data available is for the year 2003, with the figure down at 270 lakh.

Ministry officials also said that the data compiled by the DGE&T do not tally with that maintained by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) because in the case of EPFO, there is multiple counting as a majority of the people do not inform the EPFO when they switch jobs. As a result, EPFO counts the number of provident fund accounts and not the number of provident fund members.

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