Drivers of Rural Non-farm Sector Employment in India, 1983–2019

Shiba Shankar Pattayat and Jajati Keshari Parida

South Asia Economic Journal, 2024, vol. 25, issue 1, 45-73

Abstract: Using the national-level employment and unemployment surveys (NSS and PLFS) and the macro-level data for the period 2005–2019, this article explores the trends and recent growth patterns of rural non-farm sector employment in India. It also examines the micro-level factors determining individuals’ preference towards non-farm sector jobs and the macro-level factors responsible for the growth of non-farm sector employment in rural India. The main findings of the study suggest that although rural non-farm sector employment is rising in absolute terms, its growth rate has slackened in recent years. While the level of education and skill training, market wage rates and socio-cultural setups are among the key micro-level factors determining farm–non-farm employment choices of rural folks, at the macro-level, the growth of investment in capital goods, the number of factories, investment in infrastructure development and the growth of the manufacturing sector are crucial for the growth of non-farm sector jobs in India. Based on these findings, it is argued that the improvement of human capabilities through increased investment in education and skill, and the growth of non-farm sector employment through the development of rural infrastructure and industrialization measures, are necessary to sustain the structural transformation and to harness the demographic dividend in India. JEL Codes: J01, J21, J43, J64

Keywords: Job analysis; youth work; India; urban; rural and regional economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13915614231221649 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:soueco:v:25:y:2024:i:1:p:45-73

DOI: 10.1177/13915614231221649

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in South Asia Economic Journal from Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().