Key Points
Enterprises with 10+ workers had a higher rate of employment growth in 2020-21 and 2021-22 than own-account enterprises..
According to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, manufacturing employment increased by about 5% in 2020-21 and about 8% in 2021-22..
These hikes in manufacturing employment are also remarkable as several surveys of manufacturing and services enterprises were undertaken in India in 2020/2021 to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Indian MSMEs, which showed that the pandemic had a severe adverse effect on employment..
The increases in manufacturing employment in 2020-21 and 2021-22 cannot be attributed entirely or predominantly to distress-driven employment, although Covid-19-related distress may have played some role..
If distress-driven employment was the prime cause of hikes in manufacturing employment in 2020-21 and 2021-22, this should have manifested in increases in employment in own-account industrial enterprises..
