CHENNAI: There has been a 3% decline in Tamil Nadu’s workforce between 2011 and 2018-19 with just 50% of the State’s population being employed and 46.4% of the population falling under ‘Not in the Workforce’ category in 2018-19, according to the Tamil Nadu Household Panel Survey’s Pre-Baseline Survey. The report says 3.6% of the employable population was unemployed in 2018-19.
Comparing the National Sample Survey data of 2011-12, the survey says unemployment in TN has increased from 1.6% in 2011-12 to 3.6% in 2018-19. According to the survey, those ‘Not in the Workforce’ include retired people, homemakers, students and those who are not seeking employment.
The report also highlights gender divide in employment. While women make up 32% of TN’s workforce, the national average is only 18.6% as per Periodic Labour Force Survey data, says Dr Kripa Ananthpur, one of the principal investigator and project coordinator of the survey.
The 2018-19 survey, which is the only statistics that the State has post 2011 census, has a sample size of 2.12 lakh households. Prof L Venkatachalam, Dr K Jafar of Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), and Prof William G Axinn and Prof Narayan Sastry of Survey Research Centre, University of Michigan, are the other principal investigators of the survey carried out in collaboration with the Department of Economics and Statistics of Tamil Nadu government.
“If students are excluded from the ‘Not in the Workforce’ category and rest of the working-age population (14 years and above) is analysed, unemployment rate increases to 4%. At the same time, percentage of people who are employed also increases to 57% and people not in workforce reduces to 39%,” says the report.
Difference in the share of men and women reported as unemployed (4.6% and 2.37% respectively) and ‘Not in the Workforce (23.78% and 67.63%) confirm the low participation of women in the workforce, the survey said. The survey did not take into consideration unpaid domestic and other labour carried out by females within the household. The low female labour force participation highlights the need for intervention by the State and non-government organisations to increase the number of women in the workforce and create job opportunities for vulnerable groups including women.
Private sector salaried jobs emerged as the major work type with 22% of Tamil Nadu’s population involved in it. This was followed by casual labour (agriculture) at 19% and self-employment (non-agriculture) at 14%, respectively. In rural areas, almost 30% of the population was involved in casual labour (agriculture), followed by 14% in private sector salaried employment. In urban areas, 32% were in private sector salaried jobs followed by 21% in self-employment in non-agriculture fields.
Private sector salaried work emerged as an important work option for most social groups except Scheduled Tribes. This pattern could be read along with the difference in the level of educational status across the social group and the quality of employment they are engaged in.
The report also says that Kanniyakumari has high literacy rate and low employment rate compared to Tiruppur which has low literacy rate but high employment rate in Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, 19% of households in Tamil Nadu are headed by women. Of the female-headed households, 74% of them are widowed and a small percentage of women (3.56%) are separated.
There are more female-headed households among Scheduled Castes (23.65%), Backward Castes (46.4%) and Most backward Castes (23%). Chennai (5.71%), Kancheepuram (5%) and Tirunelveli (5%) have more female-headed households than other districts.
Factfile
Around 19% of households own agricultural land in the state
The three districts with the highest percentage of households owning agricultural land were Ariyalur, Perambalur and Dharmapuri
Three districts with least percentage of ownership of agricultural land were Chennai, Coimbatore and Kancheepuram
91% of the households own at least one or more household assets
89% of the households owned mobile phones
54% owned two-wheelers
98% households had a domestic power connection compared to 93% in 2011
The presence of latrine within the premises of house during the period 2011-18 has increased from 44.6% to 72.5%
Of the 27.5% that did not possess toilets, 83.8% practised open defecation and 15.2% used public toilets
Female literacy rate increased from 73.4% to 80.2% between 2011 and 2018-19
Population practicing Hinduism increased from 87.6% to 89.2% from 2011 to 2018
BC is the most predominant social group in TN, followed by SC and MBC