What are different aspects of quality of employment?
What are different aspects of quality of employment?
There are certain criteria on the basis of which we can check the quality of employment such as productivity of employment; the proportion of workers engaged in regular and casual labour; and proportion of workers in organized and unorganized sectors.
1. Productivity of employment: Only the status of being employed does not itself necessarily ensure a decent level of living in India. In 1999-2000, of the total employed persons about 23.87% are the working poor. This means that the major problem relates to that of the working poor as the productivity of employment is very low. Low educational and skill levels of the workers are main causes of the
low productivity of employment.
2. Proportion of workers in organized and unorganized sector : If the share of unorganized employment increases it means an overall deterioration in the quality of employment. The quality of employment can be considered low if the size of unorganized sector is larger than the organized sector. It was only about 7% of the total employment in 1999-2000 and over the years the share of the organized sector employment has been shrinking. We may note that manufacturing construction, trade and transport are sectors where there is large concentration of unorganized workers. The share of the unorganized sector employment which was estimated to be around 93% before 1997 should have gone up and may further increase over the coming years as there was an increase in the absolute numbers. Many studies at micro level show that flexibility in the labour market increased after the introduction of economic reforms in the country Despite the existence of restrictive labour laws, the firms have been able to retrench a large number of permanent workers while many units were closed leading to unemployment of thousands of workers during the reform period.
3. Proportion of workers engaged as regular and causal labours: At present , low earning ,poor condition of work and lack of social protection and vulnerability to the risks and hazards and irregularity and uncertainty of work availability such problems in the economy has been felt due to the increase in the casualisation of the workforce . This is also a dimension of deterioration in the quality of employment. Those in regular wage paid or salaried jobs continue to constitute around 14% of all workers for over two decades from 1977-78 to 1999-2000. The category casual employment has steadily increased from 27% in 1977-78 to 32% in 19993 -1994 and rose further to 33% in 1999-2000.
There are certain criteria on the basis of which we can check the quality of employment such as productivity of employment; the proportion of workers engaged in regular and casual labour; and proportion of workers in organized and unorganized sectors.
1. Productivity of employment: Only the status of being employed does not itself necessarily ensure a decent level of living in India. In 1999-2000, of the total employed persons about 23.87% are the working poor. This means that the major problem relates to that of the working poor as the productivity of employment is very low. Low educational and skill levels of the workers are main causes of the
low productivity of employment.
2. Proportion of workers in organized and unorganized sector : If the share of unorganized employment increases it means an overall deterioration in the quality of employment. The quality of employment can be considered low if the size of unorganized sector is larger than the organized sector. It was only about 7% of the total employment in 1999-2000 and over the years the share of the organized sector employment has been shrinking. We may note that manufacturing construction, trade and transport are sectors where there is large concentration of unorganized workers. The share of the unorganized sector employment which was estimated to be around 93% before 1997 should have gone up and may further increase over the coming years as there was an increase in the absolute numbers. Many studies at micro level show that flexibility in the labour market increased after the introduction of economic reforms in the country Despite the existence of restrictive labour laws, the firms have been able to retrench a large number of permanent workers while many units were closed leading to unemployment of thousands of workers during the reform period.
3. Proportion of workers engaged as regular and causal labours: At present , low earning ,poor condition of work and lack of social protection and vulnerability to the risks and hazards and irregularity and uncertainty of work availability such problems in the economy has been felt due to the increase in the casualisation of the workforce . This is also a dimension of deterioration in the quality of employment. Those in regular wage paid or salaried jobs continue to constitute around 14% of all workers for over two decades from 1977-78 to 1999-2000. The category casual employment has steadily increased from 27% in 1977-78 to 32% in 19993 -1994 and rose further to 33% in 1999-2000.
