Employment growth
Topic: Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Employment: Growth, Informalisation and Other Issues"
Meaning
Employment growth is the yearly rate at which the number of jobs rises. Comparing it with GDP growth shows whether growth is creating enough work. In India, GDP has grown faster than employment across 1951-2023. Employment grew at 2% a year or less, except in 1999-2005 and 2022-23. When GDP rises fast but jobs do not, the result is called jobless growth.
Example
The base is very large. In 2022-23 India's workforce was about 545 million, so 2% growth means more than 10 million new jobs a year. Keeping even that pace is hard when growth relies more on machines than on workers.
Don't confuse with
- Employment elasticity: this is a ratio (% change in employment ÷ % change in GDP) that shows how job-intensive growth is. Employment growth is just the rate at which jobs rise.