Employment Conditions, Structural Change, and Industrial Policy in Neoliberal India: An Enterprise-level Analysis of Employment Status, 2004–2024

Structural transformation of the workforce in terms of shifting a sizable section of workers from primary/low-paid/informal to secondary (manufacturing)/high-paid/formal employment has remained a crucial challenge for India’s industrial policies. During the neoliberal regime, such transformation was expected through private sector expansion, positively associated with the economy’s overall growth. Recent industrial policies and programs emphasize entrepreneurial development as a strategy for achieving the successful economic transformation of the country. The fundamental assumption underlying this policy discourse is to provide an enterprise with enough information and awareness about the existing economic demand and to correct the supply-side factors in line with overall demand. Strategies to foster higher growth and address relevant supply-side constraints remained primary policy tools. Using unit-level data from NSSO surveys, this article explores employment structure changes by mapping changes in the share of workers engaged in manufacturing or secondary activities across major enterprise types in 2004–2024. It also examines how the change in the workforce structure improved job quality. It is argued that, despite initiating many schemes and programs, the overlooked demand-side problems and the market’s exclusionary nature have not effected the structural transformation of employment.