There is good news for an economy in which job growth has been crawling. Indian companies are likely to see a 7.1 percent expansion in their workforce during the half-year period between October 2024 and March 2025, according to data released by staffing firm TeamLease. The report, based on a survey of 1,300 companies, states that 59 percent of employers across 23 industries plan to increase their workforces in the coming months. Significantly, it is not traditional manufacturing, but sectors such as logistics, electric vehicles, agriculture, and e-commerce that are increasing their manpower numbers. Logistics, at the forefront, showed that 69 percent of the units surveyed would expand and add 14.2 percent to their existing headcounts.
Though these numbers come from a private survey, they hopefully indicate a turnaround for the job market. The official numbers have not been encouraging for the first half of the financial year. For instance, data released by the Ministry of Statistics in September showed that job additions, based on the government’s social security schemes, had fallen. Employees’ Provident Fund data indicated that new subscribers dropped to 0.95 million from 0.98 million in August, the lowest figure for the current financial year.
India has been struggling to reverse the Covid freeze. Even today, only 21 percent of the workforce holds salaried jobs, compared with 24 percent before the pandemic. Over half of the 582 million workers in India are self-employed, according to a Citibank report. The economy needs to generate 12 million jobs a year to absorb the new workforce; but with 7 percent GDP growth, the best we can manage is about 8-9 million jobs annually—leaving a yawning, restive gap. It is not just the government’s infrastructure projects or rural schemes that can rejuvenate the job market.
The private sector must also invest fresh capital and technology to generate employment. However, despite government appeals, the private sector has been more focused on consolidating profits and boosting returns. Another analysis by S&P showed that the private sector was not investing to its full potential, even though these companies were in a strong position with lower corporate taxes, good financial health, and benefits from production-linked incentives. We hope the new job numbers indicate a shift in the private sector’s approach.