IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v64y2021i2d10.1007_s41027-021-00317-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stalled Structural Change Brings an Employment Crisis in India

Author

Listed:
  • Santosh Mehrotra

    (University of Bath
    Jawaharlal Nehru University)

  • Jajati K. Parida

    (Central University of Punjab)

Abstract

Using national-level employment data, this paper explores both the supply and demand-side factors responsible for stalling India’s structural transformation on the employment side. We have found that although the overall LF participation has consistently been declining, the size of open unemployment and discouraged LF are rising at an unprecedented pace. This employment crisis arose because of the stalled structural transformation owing to the lack of effective demand for skilled workers in the non-farm sectors. This crisis is not only reflected in stagnant real wages, but it also adversely affected GDP growth and the incidence of poverty. Hence, unless measures are taken quickly, India’s demographic dividend, which ends in 2040, is under severe threat.

Suggested Citation

  • Santosh Mehrotra & Jajati K. Parida, 2021. "Stalled Structural Change Brings an Employment Crisis in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(2), pages 281-308, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:64:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s41027-021-00317-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-021-00317-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-021-00317-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-021-00317-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angela Luci, 2009. "Female labour market participation and economic growth," International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(2/3), pages 97-108.
    2. Satinder Singh & J. K. Parida & I. C. Awasthi, 2020. "Employability and Earning Differentials Among Technically and Vocationally Trained Youth in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(2), pages 363-386, June.
    3. Newey, Whitney K., 1987. "Efficient estimation of limited dependent variable models with endogenous explanatory variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 231-250, November.
    4. Psacharopoulos, George & Tzannatos, Zafiris, 1989. "Female Labor Force Participation: An International Perspective," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 4(2), pages 187-201, July.
    5. Stephan Klasen & Janneke Pieters, 2015. "What Explains the Stagnation of Female Labor Force Participation in Urban India?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 449-478.
    6. Angela Luci, 2009. "Female labour market participation and economic growth," Post-Print halshs-00639695, HAL.
    7. Rajesh K. Chauhan & Sanjay K. Mohanty & S V Subramanian & Jajati K Parida & Balakrushna Padhi, 2016. "Regional Estimates of Poverty and Inequality in India, 1993–2012," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1249-1296, July.
    8. Satinder Singh & J. K. Parida & I. C. Awasthi, 0. "Employability and Earning Differentials Among Technically and Vocationally Trained Youth in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 0, pages 1-24.
    9. Kankesu Jayanthakumaran & Reetu Verma & Guanghua Wan & Edgar Wilson (ed.), 2019. "Internal Migration, Urbanization and Poverty in Asia: Dynamics and Interrelationships," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-981-13-1537-4, October.
    10. Schultz, T Paul, 1990. "Women's Changing Participation in the Labor Force: A World Perspective," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(3), pages 457-488, April.
    11. Ambreen Fatima & Humera Sultana, 2009. "Tracing out the U‐shape relationship between female labor force participation rate and economic development for Pakistan," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(1/2), pages 182-198, January.
    12. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    13. Ambreen Fatima & Humera Sultana, 2009. "Tracing out the U-shape relationship between female labor force participation rate and economic development for Pakistan," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 36(2), pages 182-198, January.
    14. Narayanamoorthy, A., 2013. "Profitability in Crops Cultivation in India: Some Evidence from Cost of Cultivation Survey Data," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 68(1), pages 1-18.
    15. Bardhan, Pranab K, 1979. "Labor Supply Functions in a Poor Agrarian Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 73-83, March.
    16. Goldar, Bishwanath, 2013. "Determinants of Import Intensity of India’s Manufactured Exports Under the New Policy Regime," Indian Economic Review, Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 221-237.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Santosh Mehrotra, 2022. "Can Asia Assure Social Insurance For All Its Informal Workers?," Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 29(2), pages 155-185, November.
    2. Satheesha, B., 2023. "Changing Rural Labour Markets in India Evidence from a Village in Southern Karnataka," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 13(2023-07-0), July.
    3. Sapna Goel, 2022. "Effect of Deagrarianization at the Household Level on the Scale and Nature of Women’s Work in Rural India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 1053-1082, December.
    4. Małgorzata Tarczynska-Luniewska & Iwona Bak & Uma Shankar Singh & Guru Ashish Singh, 2022. "Economic Crisis Impact Assessment and Risk Exposure Evaluation of Selected Energy Sector Companies from Bombay Stock Exchange," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-25, November.
    5. Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Jajati Keshari Parida & Kirtti Ranjan Paltasingh, 2023. "Gender Wage Gap among Rural Non-farm Sector Employees in India: Evidence from Nationally Representative Survey," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 28(1), pages 22-44, June.
    6. Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Jajati Keshari Parida & I. C. Awasthi, 2022. "Reducing Rural Poverty Through Non-farm Job Creation in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(1), pages 137-160, March.
    7. Balwant Singh Mehta & Ishwar Chandra Awasthi, 2022. "Dynamics of Urban Labour Market and Informality," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(1), pages 19-37, March.
    8. Amit Basole, 2022. "Structural Transformation and Employment Generation in India: Past Performance and the Way Forward," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(2), pages 295-320, June.
    9. K. P. Kannan, 2022. "India’s Elusive Quest for Inclusive Development: An Employment Perspective," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 579-623, September.
    10. Jajati Keshari Parida & S. Madheswaran, 2023. "Harnessing Demographic Dividend Before it is Lost Forever in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 66(1), pages 61-79, March.
    11. Jian Zhou & Jingjing Deng & Li Li & Shuang Wang, 2023. "The Demographic Dividend or the Education Dividend? Evidence from China’s Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Rahul A Sirohi, 2024. "Corporate power and the rise of intangibles: A study of Indian firms," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 865-882, May.
    13. Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Jajati Keshari Parida, 2024. "Drivers of Rural Non-farm Sector Employment in India, 1983–2019," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 25(1), pages 45-73, March.
    14. Debdulal Saha, 2024. "Effects of COVID-19 on Tea Plantation Workers in India: Issues of Labour Market Institutions," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(1), pages 255-279, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mehrotra, Santosh & Parida, Jajati K., 2017. "Why is the Labour Force Participation of Women Declining in India?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 360-380.
    2. Antara Bhattacharyya & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2020. "Does U Feminisation Work in Female Labour Force Participation Rate? India: A Case Study," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(1), pages 143-160, March.
    3. Chaudhary, Ruchika. & Verick, Sher., 2014. "Female labour force participation in India and beyond," ILO Working Papers 994867893402676, International Labour Organization.
    4. repec:ilo:ilowps:486789 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Amaia Altuzarra & Catalina Gálvez-Gálvez & Ana González-Flores, 2019. "Economic Development and Female Labour Force Participation: The Case of European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Berga, Helen & Abdisa, Lamessa T., 2022. "Assessing Gender Gap in Wage and Self-Employment: Evidence from Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 31(01), April.
    7. Chaudhuri, Sanjukta, 2010. "Women's Empowerment in South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Comparative Analysis," MPRA Paper 19686, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Parida, Jajati Keshari & Bhagavatula, Niharika, 2023. "The labour market dilemma of young urban women in India: An outcome of family welfare optimization," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    9. Buhari Dogan & Mürsel Akyüz, 2017. "Female Labor Force Participation Rate And Economic Growth In The Framework Of Kuznets Curve: Evidence From Turkey," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 19, pages 33-54, June.
    10. Nthabeleng Lillian Moshoeshoe & Baorong Yu, 2021. "Economic Growth and Participation of Women in Labor Markets: The Case of Southern Africa," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(1), pages 30-41.
    11. Giulia Mancini, 2018. "Women's Labor Force Participation in Italy, 1861-2011," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 3-68.
    12. Pritam Ranjan SAHU & Deepak Kumar BEHERA, 2023. "Female Labour Force Participation In India, 2017-2020: Approach Towards Sustainable Development," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 23(2), pages 109-126.
    13. Tunalı, İnsan & Kırdar, Murat G. & Dayıoğlu, Meltem, 2021. "Down and up the “U” – A synthetic cohort (panel) analysis of female labor force participation in Turkey, 1988–2013," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    14. Alessandra Costagliola, 2021. "Labor Participation and Gender Inequalities in India: Traditional Gender Norms in India and the Decline in the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR)," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 531-542, September.
    15. Prathi Seneviratne, 2017. "Female Labour Force Participation and Economic Development in Labour Abundant Countries: Evidence from Sri Lanka," Working Papers 2017-02, Carleton College, Department of Economics.
    16. BILAN Yuriy & OMRAN Emad Attia Mohamed, 2022. "Female Labour Force Participation and the Economic Development in Egypt," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    17. Moundir Lassassi & Aysit Tansel, 2022. "Female labor force participation in Egypt and Palestine: An age–period–cohort analysis," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 1997-2020, November.
    18. BILAN Yuriy & OMRAN Emad Attia Mohamed & BILAN Yuriy & OMRAN Emad Attia Mohamed, 2012. "Female Labour Force Participation and the Economic Development in Egypt," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    19. Fernando Rios-Avila & Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, 2018. "Standard-error correction in two-stage optimization models: A quasi–maximum likelihood estimation approach," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 18(1), pages 206-222, March.
    20. Isis Gaddis & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "Economic development, structural change, and women’s labor force participation:," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 639-681, July.
    21. Tunyi, Abongeh A. & Ntim, Collins G. & Danbolt, Jo, 2019. "Decoupling management inefficiency: Myopia, hyperopia and takeover likelihood," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1-20.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:64:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s41027-021-00317-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.