Urban Employment in India: Recent Trends and Patterns

This article explores trends in urban employment in India, with a focus on urban informal employment. The data presented are from three of the recent large-sample rounds of the National Sample Survey which are carried out every five years in India: the 55th Round covering 1999–2000; the 61st Round covering 2004–05; and the 66th Round covering 2009–10. All tables in this article are based on tabulations of the raw data by one of the authors (G. Raveendran). The article reviews trends in urban employment in India, including the marked de-acceleration of employment growth and the marked decline in the female labour force participation rate between 2004–05 and 2009–10. Also, an overview of urban informal employment is presented, which represents 80 per cent of total employment, by employment status and branch of industry as well as four specific groups of informal workers—domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers—which together represent 33 per cent of total urban employment in India in 2009–10. In the end, we summarise what we know about urban informal employment in India today and over the first decade of the 21st century and conclude with a call for re-envisioning cities in India to allow informal enterprises, activities and workers to operate alongside larger firms, more formal activities and formal workers. JEL Classifications : J8, E26, D13