This paper is principally focused on the changes in the size and structure of the workforce and the changes in labour productivity, wages and poverty in India in the first quinquennium of the 21st century. The period between 2000 and 2005 saw a sharp acceleration in workforce growth, and, on the obverse side, a slowdown in the rate of growth of labour productivity across most sectors and in the economy as a whole, and, a slowdown (a decline) in real wage growth in rural (urban) India. Consistent with the trends in labour productivity and real wages, relative to the 1994-2000 period, the pace of poverty reduction between 2000 and 2005 shows, at best, a marginal acceleration (or a marginal deceleration, depending on the choice of poverty lines) in rural India and a clear slowdown in urban India. This period also saw a small rise in the number of working poor and a substantial rise in the number of self-employed and regular wage/salary workers in the "above poverty line" households.