India's number of employed people up by 36 per cent, govt informs Lok Sabha

The number of employed people in India has increased by over 36 per cent from 2017-18 to 2023-24, the Government informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday (July 24), citing RBI data. The statistics were shared by Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje informed Lok Sabha in a written reply.

“As per the latest data, total estimated employment in the country has increased to 64.33 crores (Provisional) during 2023-24 as compared to 47.15 crores during 2014-15, which indicates a growth of 36.44% during the period,” stated the Union Minister.

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RBI’s KLEMS database

She further stated that the data was sourced from the KLEMS (K: Capital, L: Labour, E: Energy, M: Materials and S: Services) database published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that covers 27 industries comprising the entire Indian economy and provides employment estimates across 27 industries.

The MoS further stated that the official data on employment and unemployment is collected through the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), which is conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) since 2017-18.

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Dip in unemployment rate

She also said that the unemployment rate in the country for people aged 15 years and above has decreased from 6.0% in 2017-18 to 3.2% in 2023-24. “Also, the UR for women (age 15 years and above) has decreased from 5.6% to 3.2%,” added the Minister

She further stated that the estimated Worker Population Ratio (WPR) in the same age group has increased from 46.8% in 2017-18 to 58.2% in 2023-24.

“Also, the WPR for women (age 15 years and above) has increased from 22.0% to 40.3%. The estimated WPR on usual status for female (15 years and above) in the State of Karnataka has increased from 24.8% in 2017-18 to 37.2% in 2023-24,” she added.

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Labour Ministry refutes report

The statistics come a day after the labour ministry had dismissed a media report which raised doubts on the accuracy of official unemployment data in India, stating that it is based on a large-scale, stratified, multi-stage random sampling framework that covers both rural and urban regions across the country.

The Labour Ministry further stated that since January 2025, PLFS has transitioned to generating monthly estimates in addition to its existing annual and quarterly outputs, enabling timely and granular tracking of labour market trends.

The PLFS methodology is aligned with international standards, particularly the definitions and classifications prescribed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), such as Usual Principal Status (UPS) and Current Weekly Status (CWS).

Its data collection and reporting protocols are consistent with global practices used by institutions like the World Bank, UNDP, and ILOstat, enhancing its comparability with international datasets, stated the Labour Ministry as quoted by PTI.

(With agency inputs)