Every 2 In 5 Workers In Formal Manufacturing Sector On Contract In FY23: Data

Highlighting the increasing trend of contract jobs in India's labour force, data has revealed that around 41 per cent of the workers employed in the formal manufacturing sector were on contract in the financial year 2023 (FY23). The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) made the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data public.

As per the data, around 2,53,000 factories across the country employed 14.61 million workers in FY23. Of this, around 5.95 million workers (40.7 per cent) of them were on contract. This is the highest-ever percentage of contract-based jobs when compared with 40.2 per cent in the preceding financial year.

For better clarity, the workers on a contract basis differ from regular employees who have permanent or long-term employment status with social security perks. These workers are hired by industrial establishments through contractual agreements. These may be for specific tasks or a certain period.

The share of contract workers in these establishments stood at 38.4 per cent in FY20 when 5.02 million out of 13.05 million workers were working on jobs that were contractual in nature. Among the remaining workers who were directly employed by these factories, the representation of women remained stagnant at 18.42 per cent in the financial year 2023. The percentage was the same in the preceding fiscal as well.

As far as the state-wise analysis is concerned, Bihar tops the list with the highest share of contract workers at 68.6 per cent, followed by Telangana at 64.5 per cent. Uttarakhand (57.7 per cent), Odisha (57.3 per cent) and Maharashtra (53.04) make up the top five.

Kerala has the lowest percentage of workers engaged in contractual nature of jobs at 23.8 per cent, followed by Tamil Nadu at 24.5 per cent and Punjab at 29.8 per cent. The ASI survey seeks to provide insights into the evolving nature of India’s manufacturing sector in terms of output, employment and capital formation.