What are the recent trends in sectoral distribution of workforce in India?

The sectoral distribution of workforce in India can be analyzed by dividing it on the basis of different economic sectors i.e. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sector. The latest available official data is from the National Industrial Classification 2008.

As per this data, in the primary sector, 46.1 per cent of the workers were estimated to be employed followed by 32 per cent in the tertiary sector and the remaining 21.8 per cent in the secondary sector i.e. manufacturing and construction sector.

In last few decades, there has been a downward trend in primary sector while upward trend in tertiary sector. The workforce in agriculture has declined but this decline is very small. The workforce in manufacturing has not changed much and this sector has failed to absorb much of available work force in India owning to reasons such as lack of skills.

Only tertiary sector has grown significantly both in terms of contribution to GDP and employment generation. But the job requirements of tertiary sector are such that it cant reduce the load on primary sector.