An issue that is troubling the Narendra Modi-led government is ‘job creation’, and finding solutions to tackle this problem is not easy, as data vacuum makes it difficult for policy-making.

To overcome this vacuum, the recently constituted task force on employment data, headed by Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, is to suggest a thorough revamping of the employment data surveys.

The task force proposes to suggest a set of surveys and other institutional changes that would provide high quality data in the future for assessing the employment situation. “An important problem we need to tackle beyond modernising our systems to collect jobs data is the creation of good jobs. We need to create an environment that will generate more investments in labour-intensive industries,” Panagariya told BusinessLine. Panagariya, who is likely to make a presentation before the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday, said: “The task force has had four meetings since it was constituted (May 9, 2017). We have studied the systems for survey that currently exist in the US and the UK.”

He said lack of reliable, timely data on employment makes it difficult for policy makers and independent observers to assess the extent of employment generation at different points of time. Today, the Labour Bureau carries out a quarterly survey but this survey does not cover all sectors and, more importantly, is not suited to converting sample data into economy-wide employment estimates. As the survey reports note, the multipliers required to convert sample numbers into economy-wide numbers have problems.

The task force will recommend solutions which can be implemented in a time-bound manner. The Prime Minister’s Office has directed that this task be expedited so that reliable estimates of employment and unemployment become available at the earliest.

Panagariya has been maintaining that the figure of 10 million people entering the work force which is often cited by everyone including is likely an overestimate.

According to him what is being counted here is the number of people of working age being added. But, not everyone who enters this age group looks for a job.

He said what needs to be taken into account is the labour participation rates, which when counted, the number would turn out to be smaller.

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