Female employment in India: determinants of choice of sector of activity

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 748-759
Author(s):  
Sandhya Mahapatro

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the choice of employment sector for women is driven by the structure of the labour market or determined by the household socioeconomic condition. Design/methodology/approach Data for the study were drawn from the National Sample Survey 68th round (2011–2012). The sector of employment was assessed through females’ participation as an unpaid labour, employer/own account worker, informal wage worker, formal wage worker and unemployed. A multinomial logit model was used to examine the factors that determine the sector of employment. Findings Although education increases formal employment among women, most of them are unemployed or entering into informal employment. It indicates that the labour market has not been able to integrate educated women into formal employment. Research limitations/implications Increase in female education accompanied by a slow growth of employment creates the challenge to accommodate the educated and skilled women in formal employment. Originality/value This study examines the factors determining the sectoral participation of employment to assess the responses of the current labour market for the females, especially educated females who have not been adequately addressed. The findings of the study have significant implications for formulating appropriate labour market policies for the educated female labour force.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nitin Bisht ◽  
Falguni Pattanaik

PurposeThis study attempts to investigate the interrelationship between choice-based educational achievement and employability prospects across the skill-based occupations amongst the youth in India.Design/methodology/approachThis study relies on the use of National Sample Survey (NSS) data on employment and unemployment for the 68th round (2011–2012) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) (2017–2018). To estimate the relative contributions of choice-based educational attainment affecting the skill-based employment of youth in a different category of occupations ( high/medium/low skilled), the multinomial logistic regression and its marginal effects have been used.FindingsThe study finds educational attainment both as an opportunity (improvising employability in the high and medium skill occupation) and a challenge (highest unemployment amongst the educated) while ensuring skill-based youth employability. Despite the growing enrolment of youth in education, youth from a general education background does not find sustained employability prospects in high-skill occupations.Research limitations/implicationsVocational education highlights a brighter employability prospect but the acceptability of the same amongst the youth needs a policy intervention.Practical implicationsEducational choices need an intervention based on market-driven apprenticeships and training.Social implicationsThe decline of overall employability in the low-skill occupation raises a threat to inclusive development as such youth results to Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET), better identified as the unproductive economic youth.Originality/valueThis study attempts to investigate that “how far the choice of educational attainment (general/technical/vocational) is able to make youth a fit in the world of work?” in the Indian context, where the youth constitute the highest share in the population.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barsa Priyadarsinee Sahoo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the patterns and incidence of child labour in India and to examine the magnitude of child labour across different social groups. It analyses the impact of the socio-economic background of the children on their participation in the labour market. Design/methodology/approach The paper primarily relies on the data collected from secondary sources. The census of India data and the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 66th round data (2009–2010) on employment and unemployment in India for the study. The dependent variable on child labour has been computed by the author for the analysis in the paper. Findings The findings of the paper suggest that poverty is not the only determinant of child labour, but gender and caste of a person is also a significant factor for child labour. The study found that children from lower-caste backgrounds in India seem to participate more in the labour market. In terms of gender, the study found that boys are more likely to engage in economic activities or paid jobs while girls are more likely to engage in household activities. Originality/value Data used in this paper has been extracted by the author from unit level data provided by NSSO. The variables used for the analysis in the presented paper has been constructed by the author and the figures provided are the result of the author’s estimation on data.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097370302110296
Author(s):  
Soumyajit Chakraborty ◽  
Alok K. Bohara

Being from backward castes, classes and Muslims in India has an economic cost associated with the nature of institutional discrimination. Using the 2011–2012 National Sample Survey data, this study identifies that caste and religion still rule the modern Indian labour market. We find that discrimination is evident in the socio-religious earnings gaps. While the parametric decompositions suggest that most of these gaps are due to differential human capital endowment, the nonparametric method almost evenly attributes inequality to discrimination and endowment. The results presented in this study suggest that discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Muslims and Other Backward Classes should be included in policy designs to promote equity in the Indian labour market.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liana Stanca ◽  
Dan-Cristian Dabija ◽  
Elena Păcurar

Purpose The paper aims to highlight how an applied learning framework or “community of practice” (CoP) combined with a traditional theoretical course of study enables the identification of teaching-learning processes which facilitate knowledge transfer from practitioners to graduate information technology (IT) students for quicker integration in the labour market. Design/methodology/approach CoPs are identified based on cluster analysis according to Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (1984), with data obtained through a survey. Empirical research is applied to the CoP developed within a non-formal learning framework, principal new actors being IT specialists linked to graduate IT students and teachers on a traditional university course. Graduate IT students can gain knowledge of the ideal employee and the social and emotional skills needed to integrate with the IT labour market. Findings The K-Means algorithm helps to identify clusters of graduate IT students displaying necessary knowledge acceptance behaviour to convert them into specialists. The results of the cluster analysis show different learning styles of the labour force, providing an overview of candidate selection methods and the knowledge, skills and attitudes expected by users. Research limitations/implications Although the research adds value to the existing literature on learning styles and the knowledge and core skills needed by IT specialists, it was limited to an emerging market. Originality/value The study provides a preliminary overview of graduate IT students’ attitudes from an emerging market to the re-engineering of academic learning contexts to facilitate professional knowledge transfer, converting them into IT practitioners and integrating them in the labour market of an emerging economy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nidhiya Menon ◽  
Yana van der Meulen Rodgers

This study examines how employment and wages for men and women respond to changes in the minimum wage in India, a country known for its extensive system of minimum wage regulations across states and industries. Using repeated cross sections of India's National Sample Survey Organization employment survey data for the period 1983–2008 merged with a newly created database of minimum wage rates, we find that, regardless of gender, minimum wages in urban areas have little to no impact on labor market outcomes. However, minimum wage rates increase earnings in the rural sector, especially for men, without any employment losses. Minimum wage rates also increase the residual gender wage gap, which may be explained by weaker compliance among firms that hire female workers.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Paklina ◽  
Elena Shakina

PurposeThis study seeks to explore the demand side of the labour market influenced by the digital revolution. It aims at identifying the new composition of skills and their value as implicitly manifested by employers when they look for the new labour force. The authors analyse the returns to computing skills based on text mining techniques applied to the job advertisements.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is based on the hedonic pricing model with the Heckman correction to overcome the sample selection bias. The empirical part is based on a large data set that includes more than 9m online vacancies on one of the biggest job boards in Russia from 2006 to 2018.FindingsEmpirical evidence for both negative and positive returns to computing skills and their monetary values is found. Importantly, the authors also have found both complementary and substitutional effects within and between non-domain (basic) and domain (advanced) subgroups of computing skills.Originality/valueApart from the empirical evidence on the value of professional computing skills and their interrelations, this study provides the important methodological contribution on applying the hedonic procedure and text mining to the field of human resource management and labour market research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-560
Author(s):  
Antonio Caparrós Ruiz

PurposeThis article analyses the social capital's influence on the Spanish labour market. In particular, this study examines to what extent the social capital increases the likelihood of being employed, taking into account different labour market status, and diverse dimensions of the social capital. Focusing on wage earners, it is also analysed whether network structures in Spain influence on the wage earnings.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology applied to analyse the labour market status is a multinomial logit model. For the analysis of wages, it is specified a wage model with sample selection bias. In both cases, social capital indicators are included as regressors.FindingsThe results show that social participation exerts a positive influence on the probability of being self-employed, and lowers the likelihood of being unemployed. Moreover, it is verified that the interaction with family members or close friends influence positively on wages.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research should emphasise how employers assess the workers' competences associated with the social capital.Practical implicationsThe findings provide knowledge to policymakers useful to increase the role of social participation in the labour market.Social implicationsThe importance of social network as an instrument for the job search must be enhanced.Originality/valueThis article overcomes some drawbacks associated with the analysis of social capital from an aggregate perspective. Furthermore, social capital indicators are obtained using the Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CATPCA), which is unprecedented in the economic literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 939-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Sebastian ◽  
Magdalena Ulceluse

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an increase in the relative supply of immigrants on natives’ task reallocation, with a focus on Germany. Specifically, it investigates whether natives, as a response to increased immigration, re-specialise in communication-intensive occupations, where they arguably have a comparative advantage due to language proficiency. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses regional data from the German Labour Force Survey between 2002 and 2014. To derive data on job tasks requirements, it employs the US Department of Labor’s O*NET database, the results of which are tested through a sensitivity analysis using the European Working Condition Survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies data sets. Findings The paper finds that indeed German workers respond to increasing immigration by shifting their task supply and providing more communication relative to manual tasks. Importantly, the decrease in the supply of communication tasks is stronger and more robust than the increase in the supply of manual tasks, pointing to a potential displacement effect taking place between natives and immigrants, alongside task reallocation. This would suggest that countries with relatively more rigid labour markets are less responsive to immigration shocks. Moreover, it suggests that labour market rigidity can minimise the gains from immigration and exacerbate employment effects. Originality/value The paper not only investigates task reallocation as a result of immigration in a different institutional context and labour market functioning, but the results feed into broader policy and scholarly discussions on the effects of immigration, including questions about how the institutional context affects labour market adjustment to immigration, worker occupational mobility in a more rigid labour markets and the fine balance needed between flexibility and rigidity.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simplice Asongu ◽  
Nicholas Odhiambo

Purpose This study aims to provide the thresholds of inequality that should not be exceeded if gender inclusive education is to enhance gender inclusive formal economic participation in sub-Saharan Africa. Design/methodology/approach The empirical evidence is based on the generalised method of moments and data from 42 countries during the period 2004-2014. Findings The following findings are established. First, inclusive tertiary education unconditionally promotes gender economic inclusion, while the interaction between tertiary education and inequality is unfavourable to gender economic inclusion. Second, a Gini coefficient that nullifies the positive incidence of inclusive tertiary education on female labour force participation is 0.562. Second, the Gini coefficient and Palma ratio that crowd-out the negative unconditional effects of inclusive tertiary education on female unemployment are 0.547 and 6.118, respectively. Third, a 0.578 Gini coefficient, a 0.680 Atkinson index and a 6.557 Palma ratio are critical masses that wipe out the positive unconditional effects of inclusive tertiary education on female employment. The findings associated with lower levels of education are not significant. Practical implications As the main policy implication, income inequality should not be tolerated above the established thresholds for gender inclusive education to promote gender inclusive formal economic participation. Other implications are discussed in the light of sustainable development goals. Originality/value This study complements the existing literature by providing inequality thresholds that should not be exceeded for gender inclusive education to promote the involvement of women in the formal economic sector.


Subject Modi's post-election cabinet appointments and likely policy trajectory. Significance Following a landslide victory in the general election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week announced his new cabinet. There were new appointments at the head of the defence, foreign, home and finance ministries. Impacts The merger of the Central Statistics Office and National Sample Survey Office could further undermine trust in India’s GDP growth figures. If a crackdown on ‘illegal’ migration alienates neighbouring ally Bangladesh, Dhaka could draw closer to Delhi’s rival Beijing. Modi’s alliance will likely have a majority in the parliamentary upper house by 2021.


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