Boosting self-employment Changes the labor market

Self-employment has increased due to increasing formal credit, meeting the necessities of life through government welfare schemes and entrepreneurship of the labor force.

According to a report, India’s labor market is going through a phase of fundamental structural change. Self-entrepreneurship and higher education attainment are emerging as major enablers in all sectors.

Therefore, there is a need to change the old style of citing labor force figures. The government has also launched credit providing programs such as Mudra Yojana and PMSVA Fund to promote entrepreneurship. This is causing structural changes in India’s labor market.

Due to this, the family business grew in size by formally providing loans. This is also visible from the fact that the number of people engaging in family enterprises has increased.

According to the report, ‘The government has met the primary needs of the people like food, shelter, medical needs. The government has provided free ration to 80 crore people. Apart from the schemes of the states, Housing Scheme and Ayushman Bharat have met the primary needs of the people. People are balancing earning and family business.

According to the report, ‘Labor economists and others have misinterpreted that employment opportunities are declining. The trend of self-employment in India’s labor force has been more than 50 percent and this has also been reflected in the NSSO surveys of employment and unemployment in the 1980s and 1990s to 2000s.

This has been wrongfully misinterpreted by PLFS survey for higher youth (15-29 age group) as a signal of shrinking employment opportunities. However, it actually reflects the way employment and education are changing.