The Lift Line
“India has to shift from a ‘job-counting approach’ to a ‘job-quality approach’.” (Anukriti Negi, Priyabrata Sahoo and Santosh Kumar Dash, “Even as unemployment falls, lack of ‘decent work’ in India”, The Hindu, 2 November 2026)
Why This Editorial Matters for Your Exam
In the news: in the lead article of The Hindu on 2 November 2026, Anukriti Negi (Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi), Priyabrata Sahoo (Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, Banaras Hindu University, and visiting Research Fellow to University of Leeds, United Kingdom) and Santosh Kumar Dash (Assistant Professor at IRMA, “Tribhuvan” Sahkari University, Anand) ask what kind of jobs India has created as unemployment has fallen. From two rounds of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) they build a Decent Work Index and find job quality improving, but from a very low level.
For background, jobs data have run through recent coverage: the 16 October item on the PLFS monthly bulletin, the 23 October item on proposed PLFS sampling changes, the 30 October deep dive on social security for gig workers, the 1 November editorial on working hours, and editorials on industry growth without jobs, skill classification and wages and world unemployment. This column asks about the quality of jobs, not their number.
UPSC relevance:
- GS Paper 3: Indian economy and issues relating to growth, development and employment; inclusive growth.
- GS Paper 2: welfare of vulnerable sections; laws, institutions and bodies for their protection (social security for informal and platform workers).
- Prelims: PLFS concepts (LFPR, WPR, UR; usual status and current weekly status); the ILO’s four pillars of decent work; SDG 8 and targets 8.5 and 8.8; the India Employment Report 2024; the Code on Social Security, 2020; e-Shram.
- Essay and GS4: dignity of labour; growth with equity.
The Crux in 60 Words
Unemployment has fallen and more women are in the labour force, but the authors ask what kind of jobs these are. Their Decent Work Index, built from PLFS data, rose from 0.247 to 0.302 between 2017-18 and 2023-24, a level they call “alarmingly low”. Informality dominates, agriculture lags and marginalised women lost ground. India, they argue, must judge jobs by quality.
Negi, Sahoo and Dash argue that India’s fall in unemployment hides a deficit of decent work: on their own Decent Work Index, job quality improved between 2017-18 and 2023-24 but remains low and uneven, so policy must move from counting jobs to judging their quality.
- On the authors’ index, manufacturing and transport improved most, yet even there access to social security stays limited; agriculture, the largest employer, remains the lowest-quality sector.
- Informal employment, already the norm, has spread into supply chains, platform work, logistics, home-based production and, through contracting and outsourcing, into organised industry.
- The authors find that women from Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes saw decent-work outcomes decline over the period even as men’s improved, and that Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh lag behind.
- Workers without social security spend less, save less and are exposed to shocks, and informality lowers productivity and tax capacity, so poor job quality is a growth problem as well as a welfare one.
Official data show quality moving the right way too: women’s labour force participation rose by more than 18 percentage points between 2017-18 and 2023-24, and in 2025 the share of regular wage and salaried workers rose while self-employment fell. The Labour Codes now define gig and platform work and mandate appointment letters.
And the authors’ index, its weights and its State scores are not published in the column, so its readings cannot yet be tested.
Social protection that travels with the worker regardless of employment status, incentives and subsidies tied to written contracts, paid leave and social security contributions, targeted support for women from marginalised groups, and Labour Codes implemented with workers’ needs first, judged by benefits delivered rather than registrations.
Background and Context
What the official numbers show
| Indicator (usual status, ps+ss, age 15 and above) | 2017-18 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate, persons | 6.0% | 3.2% |
| Unemployment rate, men | 6.1% | 3.2% |
| Unemployment rate, women | 5.6% | 3.2% |
| LFPR, persons | 49.8% | 60.1% |
| LFPR, women | 23.3% | 41.7% |
| WPR, women | 22.0% | 40.3% |
Source: MoSPI, press note on the PLFS annual report 2023-24 (September 2024), Rural + Urban.
The column opens with unemployment falling “from 6.1% in 2017-18 to 3.2% in 2023-24”. In MoSPI’s table 6.1 per cent is the rate for men; for all persons it was 6.0 per cent. The column’s line that female workforce participation rose “for the first time in decades” is its own phrasing; the table shows the scale of the rise.
Newer numbers, and why they do not line up
The first comprehensive report based on the calendar-year survey, for 2025 (released in March 2026), puts unemployment at “3.1% for both male and female”, the share of regular wage or salaried workers at “23.6% in 2025 compared to 22.4% in 2024” and self-employment at 56.2 per cent. MoSPI warns that these estimates “may not be strictly comparable with those presented in the previous annual reports”. The monthly bulletin’s 5.0 per cent for September 2026 uses current weekly status (a 7-day reference), so it is not a “rise” from the annual usual-status rate.
What “decent work” means
The column glosses the ILO’s idea as “employment that offers equitable income, workplace rights, social security and dignity”. The ILO’s own description is wider: “opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income; security in the workplace and social protection for all”, along with personal development, the freedom to organise and “equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men”. SDG 8 carries the idea into the 2030 Agenda (its targets are in the Vault below).
How informal is India’s workforce?
The India Employment Report 2024, the third in a series by the Institute for Human Development (IHD) prepared with the ILO, states: “Nearly 82 per cent of the workforce engages in the informal sector, and nearly 90 per cent is informally employed.” It adds that the informal share of employment increased “Due to the nature of employment growth since 2019”. The informal sector describes the enterprise; informal employment describes the job, which lacks formal protections and can exist inside a formal firm.
The Analysis
The column makes its case in six steps.
1. The question behind the good news. The authors accept the better headline numbers and ask “what kind of jobs have been generated in India recently, and what working conditions accompany them”, because “employment alone does not inherently ensure dignity, security, or a stable livelihood”. A garment worker without a contract or a gig worker without insurance, they write, “may technically be considered employed, but they remain outside the promise of decent work”.
2. A Decent Work Index of their own. The authors built a multidimensional index from the 2017-18 and 2023-24 PLFS rounds, on three subdimensions (employment status, employment opportunity and social security) across five industries: agriculture, manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail, and transport. The values they report:
| Industry | 2017-18 | 2023-24 | The authors’ reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 0.247 | 0.302 | “the overall level remains alarmingly low” |
| Manufacturing | 0.324 | 0.411 | “a gradual rise in formalisation and digitalisation” |
| Transport | 0.285 | 0.35 | “the expansion of urban logistics and app-based platform work” |
| Agriculture | 0.211 | 0.267 | “the lowest-quality employment generating sector” |
Source: the authors’ calculations, as reported in the column. This is not an official or ILO index; the column does not give its formula, weights or the values for construction and retail.
A careful reader will note that the column calls agriculture’s rise “marginal”, yet its gain (0.056) matches the overall gain (0.055): agriculture’s problem is its level, not its pace.
3. Better sectors, thin protection. “Even in sectors where employment conditions have improved, access to social security remains limited,” the authors write. In their reading many workers still lack written contracts, paid leave, provident fund or insurance, and most farm workers remain self-employed or unpaid family workers: “The issue is not merely low productivity; rather it is the rise of informal jobs.” Construction and retail, they add, run on casual work and subcontracting.
4. Informality is spreading. Informal employment, already the norm, grew after 2019 (see Background). The column traces it into supply chains, platform work, logistics, home-based production and “even organised industries through contractualisation and outsourcing”: a formal firm can still hire informally.
5. Caste, gender and region. The authors find that decent-work outcomes “improve significantly with education, formal enterprise employment and skill training”. Their sharpest finding is that “women from Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes experienced a decline in decent-work outcomes between 2017-18 and 2023-24, even as outcomes for men improved”, and that “The labour market penalty for being both female and socially marginalised has intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic.” On regions: “States such as Goa, Keralam, Tamil Nadu, and Haryana perform substantially better in terms of decent-work creation; in contrast, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh continue to lag behind.” These are the authors’ results from their index; the column gives no State scores or ranks.
6. Why job quality is a growth question. “Workers without social security spend less, save less and remain vulnerable to economic shocks,” the column argues, and “informality depresses productivity, weakens tax capacity, and increases inequality”. So, in its words, “A country aspiring to become Viksit Bharat by 2047 cannot rely indefinitely on insecure, low-paid and unprotected labour.”
The four asks. The authors then set out what policy should do:
- Portable social protection for gig and platform workers, the self-employed, farmers and informal workers; e-Shram is “a good start, but registering alone does not guarantee protection”.
- Formalise conditions, not just firms: link tax incentives and subsidies to “mandatory worker protections such as written contracts, paid leave, and social security contributions”.
- Intersectional policy: childcare, safe transport, skill training and safeguards against workplace discrimination for women from marginalised castes.
- Worker-first reform, “rather than being framed primarily as a means of easing the cost of doing business”.
The Labour Codes. The column says the four codes “were introduced in 2025”. They were in fact enacted in 2019 and 2020 and made effective from 21 November 2025 (PIB). The Code on Social Security defines gig work, platform work and aggregators for the first time and makes aggregators contribute a share of turnover, and the codes provide “Mandatory appointment letters to all workers.” The e-Shram portal, launched in August 2021, registers unorganised workers on self-declaration. The column’s verdict that “implementation remains partial and inconsistent” is its own, and it reports a view, not a finding: “Critics argue that while compliance has been eased for businesses, worker protections may have diminished with rising contractualisation.”
Data and Institutions Vault
Prelims-grade facts:
PLFS (usual status, ps+ss, age 15 and above):
- Unemployment, persons: 6.0% in 2017-18, 3.2% in 2023-24 (men 6.1% to 3.2%; women 5.6% to 3.2%).
- Annual report 2025 (released 27 March 2026, revamped survey): UR 3.1% for both men and women; LFPR 59.3%; WPR 57.4%.
- Monthly bulletin, September 2026: UR 5.0% on current weekly status (7-day reference), not comparable with usual status.
Decent work and SDG 8:
- ILO’s four pillars: job creation, rights at work, social protection, social dialogue.
- SDG 8: “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”.
- Target 8.5: full and productive employment and decent work for all by 2030, and equal pay for work of equal value; indicator 8.5.2 is the unemployment rate.
- Target 8.8: protect labour rights and safe working environments, including for migrant workers and those in precarious employment.
Informality (India Employment Report 2024, IHD with the ILO):
- Nearly 90% of workers informally employed; nearly 82% in the informal sector.
- The informal share has risen since 2019.
Labour law and registration:
- Article 41 (DPSP): right to work, to education and to public assistance in unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, within the State’s economic capacity.
- Article 43 (DPSP): the State is to endeavour to secure to all workers work, a living wage and conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life.
- Four Labour Codes: Code on Wages, 2019; IR Code, 2020; Code on Social Security, 2020; OSH Code, 2020.
- In force: from 21 November 2025, rationalising 29 labour laws.
- Code on Social Security: gig work, platform work and aggregators defined for the first time; aggregators pay 1-2% of turnover, capped at 5% of payouts.
- e-Shram: launched 26 August 2021; self-declaration with a UAN; 31.89 crore registrations as on 18 August 2026.
⚠️ Watch the trap: India’s unemployment rate for persons in 2017-18 was 6.0 per cent; 6.1 per cent was the rate for men. “Nearly 90 per cent” is informal employment (the job); “nearly 82 per cent” is the informal sector (the enterprise). The 5.0 per cent of September 2026 is a CWS monthly figure, not a rise from the annual 3.1 per cent. The Labour Codes were enacted in 2019-20 and made effective in November 2025. The Decent Work Index in this column is the authors’ own, not an ILO or MoSPI index.
The Debate
The authors’ case. A falling jobless rate says who has work, not what the work is worth. On their index quality has improved but stays low, protection lags even in the best sectors, and the gains have skipped marginalised women and the poorer States. So the yardstick must change, and protection must follow the worker.
The other side. The official series shows quality moving too. Women’s labour force participation rose by more than 18 percentage points between 2017-18 and 2023-24, and MoSPI’s 2025 report records more regular wage work, less self-employment and lower unemployment among those educated to secondary level and above (6.5 per cent, down from 7.0 per cent in 2024), with its caveat on comparability. Part of the authors’ second ask is already law: the codes require appointment letters and bring gig and platform workers under social security. And readers cannot yet test the index: the column does not publish its weights, its construction and retail values or its State scores.
The balanced verdict. The authors are right that unemployment alone is a poor test of a labour market where most jobs are informal: that much rests on the India Employment Report, not on their index. Their specific readings (the caste and gender decline, the State gaps) rest on an index whose method the column does not set out. The measurable test ahead is delivery: whether the codes’ social security provisions reach the workers e-Shram has registered.
How to Think About This
Use a “which number, which job, whose job” check on any employment question:
- Which measure? Usual status or current weekly status; persons, men or women.
- Comparable over time? A revamped survey can break a series.
- What kind of job? Self-employed, casual or regular wage; with or without a contract, paid leave and social security.
- Whose job? Break the average by gender, social group and State: an average can rise while one group falls.
- On paper or in practice? A right in a code, or a name in a database, is not yet a benefit received.
Then separate the data from the reading: the PLFS and the India Employment Report are the evidence; the Decent Work Index, its causes and its rankings are the authors’ analysis.
Diagram-in-Words
Fewer jobless, more women at work → but most jobs are informal, without contracts or social security → the authors’ index: better, still low, uneven by sector, caste, gender and State → the cost: weak demand, low productivity, a thin tax base → the shift they ask for: from counting jobs to judging their quality
Read it left to right: each step moves from what the headline number shows to what it hides, and the last box is the authors’ remedy.
Falling unemployment rates do not by themselves show that jobs are getting better. Examine the gap between the quantity and the quality of employment in India and suggest measures to promote decent work. (250 words)
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), India’s unemployment rate (usual status, persons aged 15 and above) fell from 6.0 per cent in 2017-18 to 3.2 per cent in 2023-24. The International Labour Organization’s idea of decent work, resting on job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue, asks a further question: what kind of work is being created?
Quantity has improved. Women’s labour force participation rose sharply over the same period, and the PLFS annual report for 2025 records unemployment of 3.1 per cent and a rising share of regular wage and salaried workers, though MoSPI cautions that the revamped 2025 estimates may not be strictly comparable with earlier rounds.
Quality lags. The India Employment Report 2024 of the ILO and the Institute for Human Development finds nearly 90 per cent of workers informally employed and nearly 82 per cent in the informal sector, with the informal share rising since 2019.
Informal employment means jobs without the written contract, paid leave and social security of formal work, and it now reaches platform work, logistics and contracted labour in organised firms. Equity matters: one analysis using PLFS data, by Negi, Sahoo and Dash, points to compounding disadvantage for women from marginalised social groups and for workers in poorer States.
Policy has begun to respond. The four Labour Codes, effective from 21 November 2025, define gig and platform work and bring such workers under the Code on Social Security, 2020, with aggregators contributing 1-2 per cent of annual turnover, and e-Shram had 31.89 crore registrations as on 18 August 2026.
Registration, however, is not protection.
Falling unemployment is a start, not proof of good jobs. Meeting SDG target 8.5, full and productive employment and decent work for all by 2030, needs a shift from counting jobs to measuring their quality: social protection portable across jobs, formalisation linked to working conditions, and labour codes enforced with the worker at the centre.
Interview Angle
"Unemployment in India has fallen, yet most workers are informally employed. As a District Collector, how would you judge whether the jobs created in your district are decent jobs, and what would you do about the ones that are not?"
Takeaway Box
- Lift line: “India has to shift from a ‘job-counting approach’ to a ‘job-quality approach’.”
- Core idea: lower unemployment is not the same as decent work; job quality, protection and equity need their own measures.
- Prelims hooks: PLFS (April 2017; revamped January 2025); usual status vs CWS; ILO’s four pillars; SDG targets 8.5 and 8.8; IER 2024; Labour Codes in force from 21 November 2025; e-Shram (2021).
- Ethics and Interview angle: the dignity of labour: what does the state owe a worker who has a job but no contract, leave or safety net?
- Probable question: “Informal employment in India has grown even as unemployment has fallen. Discuss the reasons and the role of the Labour Codes in addressing it.” (GS3, 150 words)
Sources:
- Anukriti Negi, Priyabrata Sahoo and Santosh Kumar Dash, “Even as unemployment falls, lack of ‘decent work’ in India”, The Hindu, 2 November 2026
- MoSPI, press note on the PLFS annual report 2023-24 (23 September 2024)
- MoSPI, press note on the PLFS annual report 2025 (27 March 2026) and PLFS monthly bulletin for September 2026 (15 October 2026)
- ILO, “Decent work” topic page; ILO and Institute for Human Development, India Employment Report 2024, executive summary
- United Nations, Sustainable Development Goal 8 (targets 8.5 and 8.8)
- PIB: the four Labour Codes made effective (21 November 2025); e-Shram (3 August 2026) and “5 Years of e-Shram Portal” (25 August 2026)
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