More people shun farms

Move puts pressure on state to create more jobs in industries

The transition of employment from the agriculture sector to the industrial sector in Telangana has put pressure on the state government to create more jobs in the industrial sector. There has been a significant increase in the number of factories registered in Telangana, but most of them are small factories, which provide low employment opportunities.

About 61 per cent of the factories in the state employ less than 50 people each, and only 5.34 per cent of factories employ over 500 people each. As per the Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey (2015-16) of the Labour Bureau, agriculture and its allied sectors are the source of employment for a majority of the people in Telangana; this is followed by the services sector, and then the industrial sector.

An analysis of rural and urban employment patterns, however, revealed a major change in both rural as well as urban areas of Telangana. The number of workers employed in the agriculture sector in rural areas came down by 1.8 per cent in 2015-16, as compared to 2013-14; and there was a corresponding increase in employment in the industrial and services sectors. In urban areas, there was a reduction in employment in the industrial and agriculture sectors, accompanied by a corresponding increase in employment in the services sector.

Though the contribution of the agriculture sector to the GSDP was only 14.7 per cent in 201516, about 54 per cent of the workers in the state were dependant o n the sector for jobs and 28 per cent of workers were employed in the services sector, which contributes 62 per cent of the GSDP.

Dependency on agriculture is higher in rural areas, with 73 per cent of rural workers being engaged in the sector. The services sector is emerging as a major provider of employment in urban

areas.