Labour Ministry puts on hold quarterly jobs survey

Labour ministry’s quarterly employment survey (QES), which provides for the number of jobs created in eight sectors that account for over 80% of the country’s total organised workforce, has been put on the backburner owing to the more recent payroll data which has projected much higher number of jobs created in the organised sector than the labour bureau survey shows.
According to the government’s first-ever estimate of payroll count based on Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscription and data from the Employees State Insurance Corporation and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, over 35 lakh jobs were added in the formal economy in the six months between September 2017 and March 2018. But the 6th and 7th QES shows a total of two lakh jobs created between April-September 2017.
While the periods are not comparable as QES data comes with a lag, the latter is redundant considering its significantly low numbers and time lag. The seventh quarterly employment survey data showed only 1.36 lakh jobs were created across eight sectors, which account for 81% of the country’s total organised workforce, in the July-October quarter of 2017. This was more than double the 64,000 jobs created in the preceding quarter and more than four times the 32,000 jobs created a year ago.
Source: Economic Times