Task Force On Improving Employment Data - A Critique

The absence of reliable data on employment was well known in India. For ensuring that the sample sizes for its estimates from its annual employment and unemployment survey (EUS) were adequate, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) had instituted since 1 980s the so called `thick’ rounds of EUS with large samples, while the annual so called`thin’ rounds with small samples continued. In addition to the EUS surveys the NSSO also canvassed the so called enterprise surveys with ownership, rather than household, as the basic unit of record. There were other surveys which provided estimates of Employment and Unemployment. On 11 May 2017 the Ministry of Labour Employment set up a Task Force for Improving Employment data (DGE_-Z_-13011/08/2017-MP(G)). The Task Force submitted its report and invited comments from the public on it by July 23, 2017. This paper is a critical analysis of the report of the Task Force and also of sources of data on Employment and Unemployment in India.