Following in the US’ footsteps, India must also collect employment data electronically

In the US, creating jobs and keeping a close tab on the unemployment situation is a serious business as it reflects the health of the economy and the welfare of citizens. In fact, in America the success of a President's term is measured by the number of jobs that have been created during his tenure. Presidents like Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are those who are praised for creating a high number of jobs and employment opportunities during their respective tenures. For instance, Bill Clinton’s era witnessed an employment creation spree with 18.6 million jobs generated during the eight long years of his presidency.

With capitalism driving the US economy, there was a pressing need to address labour-related issues, both expeditiously as well as judicially, for which a Bureau of Labour Statistics was set up way back in 1884. Since 1915, it has published a journal, the ‘Monthly Labour Review’ with articles about the data, and methodologies of labour statistics. Since farm labour is often seasonal, the Bureau collects only non-farm employment data on a monthly and annual basis. Headed by a Commissioner, who is one among the top nominations made by the President soon after assuming office, the Bureau also publishes a monthly employment situation report which shows the net figure of new jobs created and those lost during the survey. These figures are tabulated after a salary survey under the ‘Current  Employment Statistics’ (CES) programme. Such a survey carried out in May 2020 covered over 1,45,000 businesses and Government agencies and nearly 6,97,000 work sites. Data collection is done through various means including Computer Aided Telephone Interview (CATI), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Touch Tone Data Entry (TDE), by Mail or Fax, or other special arrangements, with each system having its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, in the case of EDI, which has low monthly costs and a reduced burden of respondent, the raw data may be in a format which cannot be used in the estimation straightaway. Further, the Office of Technology and Survey Processing has also developed a web-based programme for the collection of monthly employment data.

In India, various organisations like the Nation Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Employment Market Information units and Employment Exchanges have been churning their own data on the condition of the labour market, in particular unemployment data, which are considered vital for any Government to frame policies. Moreover, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) also generate employment data. However, the economic crisis in 2009 prompted the labour department to carry out a Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) through its directorate based in Chandigarh which has so far produced 28 such reports, covering eight sectors. According top priority to job creation, a recent initiative announced by the Government plans to start a new quarterly job survey from March this year. Termed as the ‘All India Quarterly Base Establishment Survey’ (AIQBS) it will combine the existing quarterly employment survey and the area frame establishment survey. For the first time it will also cover establishments with more than 10 employees and result in a much larger coverage since many Medium Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) for certain reasons tend to split their activity in units with less than 10 workers. However these surveys will still fail to give an accurate picture, since they are after all samples and are only an estimate. Though established industries are still recovering from the impact of COVID-19, the unemployment rate hovering at seven per cent of the active workforce is still a worrying trend. Given the world-class information technology sector which India has, upgrading to electronic means of collecting employment data, somewhat on the lines of the US would be a cakewalk, and should be adopted without further delay.

(The writer is former member, Railway Board. The views expressed are personal.)