Professional bodies including lawyers, CAs, Architects, among others, also gig economy companies such as Ola and Uber would soon have to start filing data regarding jobs created.
The quality of jobs data have continuously been questioned, year on year. With the way of work changing across the country, it is all the more important to improvise the process of collecting jobs data.
The new approach is much needed, considering the rate at which the entire business ecosystem is becoming more unstable and complex.
The government is set to notify a framework for collating this information, adding that this had been decided at a high-level meeting recently, as per ET reports.
The government has identified 23 organisations that will be directed to share the number of professionals registered. This will eventually include service providers such as Ola and Uber that recruit drivers.
Experts have long raised concerns over the lack of quality jobs data in India.
“There is consensus within the government that job numbers from professional bodies also need to be included in India’s overall job data,” the official said.
The government think tank Niti Aayog had earlier attempted to tap this information through its data analytics cell, but this didn’t turn out as expected because of apparent reluctance on the part of the organisations to participate.
The government also uses Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) enrolment numbers as a monthly indicator of buoyancy in formal job creation in the economy. However, it has been questioned in some quarters.
The EPFO enrolment numbers along with Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme, National Pension System (NPS) and General Provident Fund (GPF) data were used by Soumya Kanti Ghosh and Pulak Ghosh last year for their study, Towards a Payroll Reporting in India, which estimated that around 7 million jobs might have been created in FY18.
“Using alternative sources for employment numbers is a great idea, since this, complementing surveys — will make estimates more robust,” said Saugata Bhattacharya, chief economist at Axis Bank.
By: Abhinav Ranjan, Editorial Desk, DKODING Media
