Himachal leads states with 70 per cent employment

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 29

Himachal Pradesh has emerged the leader among states when it comes to the total number of workers in the population.

While the national average of the worker-population ratio (WPR) in the country for the year 2019-2020 is 50.9 per cent, the corresponding figure for Himachal Pradesh is 70.5 per cent, way above the India average and the highest among states.

Punjab and Haryana fall below the national average with WPRs of 47.8 per cent and 42.9 per cent respectively.

Uttarakhand’s WPR is 49.5 per cent, while that in the UT of Chandigarh is 45.5 per cent.

Jammu and Kashmir has a higher than national average WPR of 52.5 per cent.

Overall, the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli leads the national charts with a worker population ratio of 72.2 per cent with Himachal leading among the states.

Worker Population Ratio (WPR) is defined as the percentage of workers in the population/the proportion of the working-age population that is employed and is an important indicator of workforce vitality.

Bihar has the lowest WPR of 39.7 per cent in India.

Other states with higher than national WPRs are Sikkim at 68.8 per cent, followed by Chhattisgarh 65.4 per cent, and Daman and Diu 64.5 per cent. Ladakh's WPR is also high at 62.7 per cent.

Himachal's WPR jumped from 63.9 per cent in 2018-2019 to 70.5 per cent in 2019-2020, continuing to hold the top slot among states.

The WPR estimates are among major indicators of employment and unemployment status and are being collected through the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation since 2017-18.

The latest available report for WPR estimates, released recently, is for 2019-20.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has also been publishing the monthly payroll data relating to employment in the formal sector.

This highlights that the cumulative net payroll addition to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscriber base is 77.08 lakh for the year 2020-2021, which is almost on par with previous year (78.58 lakh).

“It is observed that there is addition in net payroll as represented by EPFO subscriber base in each month of 2020-21 except for the month of April and May 2020,” a Ministry of Labour assessment says, signalling a gradual revival of the economy.

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