The present Quarterly Bulletin in the ninth in the series for the quarter October- December 2020. At the all-India level, in the urban areas, a total number of 5,563 FSUs (UFS blocks) have been surveyed during the quarter October – December 2020. The number of urban households surveyed was 43,693 and number of persons surveyed was 1,71,553  in urban areas.

KEY INSIGHTS INTO THE POST-COVID LANDSCAPE OF TALENT DEMAND AND SUPPLY IN INDIA

This report is a combination of an assessment of 65,000 candidates from across India, who appeared for the Wheebox National Employability Test (WNET) and 150+ corporates across 15 industries who participated in the India Hiring Intent survey.

Considering the importance of availability of labour force data at more frequent time intervals, National Statistical Office (NSO) launched Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) on April 2017. On the basis of PLFS, a Quarterly Bulletin is brought out giving estimates of labour force indicators, viz., Worker population ratio (WPR), Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), distribution of workers by broad status in employment and industry of work in the Current Weekly Status (CWS).

In India, by contrast, both labour demand and labour supply increased from mid-March 2020 onwards (see figure 1.10b). The increase in demand was largely driven by clerical and data entry, professional services, and software development and technology, and demand was 50 per cent higher than at the beginning of 2020. The increased demand for software development and technology could be due to the need for software solutions that enable a smooth functioning of a remote working environment. The increase in demand for work across other occupations could be attributed to the declining revenues of companies, and it is possible that many firms or clients were considering these platforms as a substitute for on-site work

The CII ASCON Survey, which tracks the growth of the industrial sector through the responses collected from sectoral industry associations, reveals slight improvement in growth trends in terms of production in Q1FY18 quarter over the corresponding quarter a year ago. However, the pace of recovery continues to be on the slow track in the surveyed quarter.

This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. Note that The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content included in the work.

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