Four employment surveys to be completed by Oct ’21: Gangwar

The government plans to launch four employment surveys on migrant workers, domestic workers, professionals and the transport sector in March and complete them by October next year, Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said on Wednesday.

A new enterprise-based quarterly employment survey will also be launched soon, replacing the earlier Quarterly Employment Survey, which was discontinued two years ago with the Centre releasing other datasets of EPFO payroll data and Periodic Labour Force Survey.

“The Bureau has recently been entrusted with four all-India surveys on migrant workers, domestic workers, employment generated by professionals and transport sector which will be launched by early March 2021 and the results of these will be available by October 2021,” Gangwar said at an event to mark the centenary year of the Labour Bureau.

To address the data needs linked to employment in both organised and unorganised sectors, Gangwar said the Bureau will soon launch the ‘All India Quarterly Survey on Employment of Enterprises’.

The minister said that for any evidence-based policy making for these workers, ‘authentic data’ on employment in organised and unorganised sector enterprises is highly called for.

Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra said that given the Bureau’s rich experience in collection of statistics under the labour laws, it is proposed to designate Labour Bureau as the nodal agency for collection of statistical returns under all the four labour codes.

The Indian Express had reported on December 16 about the Labour Ministry intending to wrap up these new employment surveys by October next year.

Earlier this October, the ministry had announced three surveys on migration, domestic workers and professional bodies for assessing their employment situation, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.