NEW DELHI : The proposed quarterly establishment (QES) survey will capture job creation in nine select segments, including manufacturing, trade, hospitality, education and transport operating both in formal and informal sectors, the Union government informed the parliament on Monday.
Though the Union labour ministry did not give an exact time frame when it is being rolled out, and when the results will be available for the first such survey, it said the outcome will be made public two months after the field survey is completed. This is the first time, the Union government has made public the details of the sectors they are targeting.
Separately, the labour ministry also made public in the Lok Sabha that in its proposed migrants’ survey, it will capture several key features of migrants’ life including data on housing, consumption, and financial inclusion.
“Labour bureau, an attached office of the ministry of labour and employment, has been entrusted with the task of conducting the All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES). It measures the change in employment in respect of establishments in nine selected sectors, namely manufacturing; construction; trade; transportation; education; health; accommodation and restaurants; IT/BPO; and financial services sector," the labour ministry informed the Lok Sabha.
This is the first time, the Union government made public the sectors it is targeting in its new establishment-based job surveys. “The government is conducting surveys to capture change in employment in various establishments in the country," it added.
AQEES has two components: Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) in respect of establishments employing ten or more workers, and two, area frame establishment survey (AFES) in respect of establishments employing nine or less workers.
The ministry said an expert group under the chairmanship of renowned statistician S.P. Mukherjee is advising the ministry on technical aspects of the surveys.
To be sure, the Union government wanted to roll out four surveys, including QES and one on migrants, from April, but later put it on hold amid the second wave of the pandemic. Though initially it wanted to roll out the QES through phone and internet, it could not progress as the labour bureau thought such a move may not be ideal to conduct an establishment-based survey.
Separately, the Union labour ministry also said its all-India survey on migrant workers aims to generate quantitative information on migrant workers and the impact of covid-19 pandemic on their work. The survey will also throw light on the socio-economic conditions of migrant workers."
In a written reply, the ministry said, “Data will be captured on their education level, vocational/technical training, gender, social group, accommodation (housing), consumption expenditure, income, financial inclusion, and change in income after migration."
The survey, according to the labour ministry, will be paperless with the computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technology, where the enumerators and supervisors “visit the household duly equipped with a hand-held electronic device that ensures faster and easier data collection, collation and compilation".
The Union government has planned to complete the study of migrants in one year, after which results will be released.
Job creation has been a tough ask in recent years and it got amplified post the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. A recent study by the Azim Premji University claimed that about 230 million individuals slid to poverty due to the pandemic. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said during April and May 2021, when the country was passing through the second wave of the pandemic, about 23 million people lost jobs both in formal and informal sector.
