Even as unemployment in the country stands at a 45-year high, more people are now part of the formal workforce, and in temporary staffing (also part of the formal workforce), according to a report released by the Indian Staffing Federation (ISF) and research firm IMRB Kantar today.
The report attributes this to reforms like changes to EPF (employee provident fund), ESI (employee state insurance) and the introduction of the goods and service tax (GST), as well as demonetization-linked reforms to the growth of the formal workforce.
The report, titled ‘Impact of Key Reforms on Job Formalization and flexi staffing’, used data from the latest National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) to come up with the figures, which showed that the percentage of people who are casual workers fell from 70% to 68% between 2015 and 2018, and consequently, more than 7 million jobs were formalized. E-commerce, manufacturing and the government have been the main contributors to the formalization of the workforce.
The total number of formal jobs in the country now stands at 74.9 million, and is projected to increase to 102 million by 2021. Formal jobs are those in which workers get access to benefits like provident fund and insurance.
Source: Economic Times
