This paper explores employment trends in India since
the mid-1990s based on study of various rounds of
National Sample Survey unit level data. The major
findings are of a structural transformation with an
absolute fall in agricultural employment and a rise in
non-agricultural employment, increasing participation
in education, decline in child labour, mechanisation
of agriculture and rising living standards in rural areas
due to a growth in real wages which led to a decline in
workforce, most of which was of women leaving the
workforce. A fall in demand for manufacturing exports
and increasing capital intensity also resulted in a
decline in manufacturing employment during
2004-05 – 2009-10. The paper estimates that
approximately 17 million jobs per annum need to be
created in non-agriculture during 2012-17. Based on
these estimates, the paper makes policy suggestions to
increase non-agricultural employment in India.