Is India Creating Adequate Jobs Post 2000: Treading Through Employment Elasticity

This paper looks into diverse databases to gauge if economic growth in India creates adequate volume of jobs since the year 2000. In our exercise, we use a popular index called employment elasticity. This indicator says to what extent the employment expands while the economy grows. First, gauging the employment elasticity, we provide a comparative picture of India and other BRICS countries during 2000-2017. Second, using the time series data for 2000 to 2016, we present the analysis pertinent to India, disaggregated for Industries. Finally, we examine the temporal change in employment elasticity with respect to the organised manufacturing in India during 2000-2014. In essence, the data conveys that India needs to create discernibly higher volume of jobs in response to the impending economic growth or find other avenues like Manpower exports or entrepreneurship growth. All three exercises concur with the conclusion that job creation in India needs a gearing up since proportionate expansion in employment is not even a fifth of expansion in value added in the economy. What makes this attempt distinct from the extant literature is that it uses more granular data with respect to the household and the enterprise, while it examines the indicator from the macro angle, as well.