Industrial worker employment surpasses 2019 peak by 2 mn

Industrial worker employment during JanuaryApril 2022 has surpassed the pre-Covid peak in the same period of 2019 by two million.

The employment of industrial workers touched 21.4 million between January and April 2022, as per CMIE's Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS). This is higher than the previous peak of 19.4 million made in January-April 2019, prior to the pandemic.

These are salaried employees who work as industrial workers, typically in a factory. It includes salaried workers on the shop-floor and instructors, plant operators, assemblers and assembly line operators, mill workers, mine workers, industrial machine operators and industrial equipment operators. People working on ports or docks are also classified as industrial workers. Salaried industrial workers account for only 21.5 per cent of the total employment in industry. But, this does not include daily wage earners.

Employment of industrial workers had peaked in January-April 2019, more than a year before the Covid-induced lockdown brought the Indian economy to its knees. After peaking at 19.4 million in the January-April 2019, a small but steady decline in employment of industrial workers was seen during May-August 2019 to 19.2 million and then to 19.1 million in SeptemberDecember 2019.

The pandemic in the subsequent periods of 2020 saw first employment declining to 18.7 million and later to the lowest level of 14.2 million during MayAugust 2020. By then 5.2 million jobs were lost from the peak levels of 2019.