46.7 million jobs were added in FY24, in India

India has added 2.5 times more jobs in the financial year 2024, compared to the last fiscal. It has added a whopping 46.7 million jobs, as per data released by the Reserve Bank of India yesterday, that is, 8 July 2024. By the end of FY24, 643.3 million people were actively working whereas only 597 million were doing so in the previous fiscal.

So many jobs have never been added since 1981-82. The rate of growth is also six per cent, which is more than it has ever been in the past 30 years. Output, on the other hand, grew only slightly, from 6.6 per cent in the previous fiscal to 6.7 per cent in FY24.

It was in the financial year 2020 that India had added more than 40 million jobs, when the output growth had fallen from 5.7 per cent to 4.1.

According to the government’s formal employment data, more than 31 million people joined the formal workforce for the first time in FY24. While 21 million of these became part of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), 10 million joined the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme (EPFS).

In 2022-23, a total of 19 million jobs were added. One tenth of these jobs were added in trade. Agricultural jobs made up 42.4 per cent of India’s total employment, while another 12.5 per cent were employed in construction.