New Delhi, March 5 Bolstering the overall economic revival story, latest employment estimates show an addition of 6.38 lakh jobs in the October-December quarter.
During this period, employment increased in almost all the sectors except the transport sector, which saw a marginal decline, according to the fifth Quarterly Quick Employment Survey conducted during October to December 2009 by the Labour Bureau.
The Survey for the previous quarter — July-September — had shown an increase of 4.97 lakh jobs.
During the latest reported quarter, over 91 per cent of the jobs created were in the exports sector, which had borne the brunt of the global downturn in the previous quarters.
As compared to exporting units, the increase in employment in non-exporting units was significantly lower — only 0.58 lakh during the quarter October-December 2009.
Of the 6.38 lakh new jobs, the biggest increase in employment of 5.70 lakh (for both exporting and non-exporting units cumulatively) was reported in the IT and BPO sector alone. Of these, 4.87 lakh jobs were added in IT and BPO units servicing the export sectors during the latest reported quarter.
In the latest survey, a fresh sample of units was drawn to assess the employment trends, with information being collected from 2,953 units covering 21 centres across 11 States and union territories. It covered eight sectors — textiles, metals, leather, automobiles, gems and jewellery, transport, IT/BPO and the handloom and powerloom.
The results of the Surveys of previous quarters show that the employment declined by 4.91 lakh during the quarter October-December 2008; increased by 2.76 lakh during January-March 2009 and dipped again by 1.31 lakh during April-June, 2009 probably due to seasonality.
It increased by 4.97 lakh during the July-September quarter of 2009 and the trend continued in the October-December period as well.
Thus, on the basis of the sample, the estimated employment in the select sectors has experienced a net addition of 7.90 lakh since September 2008.
Source : Business Line