Context: Why a JustJobs Index?

Work is fundamental to quality of life. Whether salaried or self-employed, whether on family farms or in manufacturing facilities, people across cultural and political contexts rely on their work to earn a living, to establish their dignity, to fulfill family and social obligations, and to satisfy the aspirations that drive and motivate them daily.

Much has been made in the literature and in the media about India’s jobless growth. The nation has experienced an average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of seven percent between 1995 and 2015. Yet, job creation has lagged. Long-run employment elasticity of growth declined from 0.59 during 1972/73-1993/94 to 0.18 during 1993/94-2009/10 (Papola, 2012). This decline is in step with the global decline in the employment elasticity of growth, but in as populous a country as India where the sheer scale at which the nation much generate livelihoods is daunting, a declining employment elasticity is arguably even more worrying.

Some may debate the notion that India’s growth has been jobless, but few would dispute the fact that the Indian economy is not creating enough good jobs to absorb the approximately 5-7 million that enter the labor force every year [footnote]Secondary objectives for JJN include continuing to build a JustJobs Index series, and ensuring a steady stream of funds to conduct this exercise every year with one or more partner institutions (such as APU).[/footnote]. Moreover, when it comes to India’s labor market, the need to generate millions of new jobs isn’t the only challenge.  Equally pressing is the need to improve the quality of work and livelihoods of those that are trapped in low-productivity work with poor wages, often in poor, and sometimes in exploitative, working conditions. 

The creation of good jobs – “just jobs” – on the scale that India requires is one of the biggest challenges confronting the nation. So, how is the nation’s economy faring today in terms of providing good jobs and livelihoods for its growing population?  What needs to happen to address this challenge?

Despite the import of these questions, jobs have yet to enjoy the same treatment as other indicators of economic health. Politicians, policy makers, practitioners and the private sector place a disproportionate emphasis on metrics, such as GDP or on indices that measure competitiveness and the Ease of Doing Business, as proxies for economic opportunity. The assumption is that if an economy generates economic growth, the good jobs will come. Yet perhaps they look to these imperfect measures alone because they lack a tool for analyzing performance on the economic indicator that matters most to ordinary people: jobs.

It is within this context that the JustJobs Network developed a JustJobs Index (JJI) – a comprehensive, data-driven approach to measuring the quantity and quality of jobs – at the state level in India (S-JJI). This index, the first to measure both quantity and quality of jobs, broadens the discourse on employment beyond the incomplete metric of unemployment and delves into the factors driving the rankings.

Indices are the subject of criticism. Perhaps rightly so. Indices aggregate data in a way that can conceal important information. Different weighting of indicators could reflect subjective priorities that can be questioned. Yet, such indices can also provide an important and useful tool to gauge relative performance and perhaps more importantly, a powerful vehicle for policy advocacy.  Once an index is constructed, the onerous is equally on the user to delve deeper, beneath the topline rankings to paint a more detailed picture for appropriate policy intervention.  With all the criticisms in mind, the authors of the S-JJI hope to spark a more nuanced dialogue on the jobs landscape at the state level in India.

It is within this context that the JustJobs Network developed a JustJobs Index (JJI) – a comprehensive, data-driven approach to measuring the quantity and quality of jobs – at the state level in India (S-JJI). This index, the first to measure both quantity and quality of jobs, broadens the discourse on employment beyond the incomplete metric of unemployment and delves into the factors driving the rankings.[footnote]Refer annexure 3[/footnote]

Indices are the subject of criticism. Perhaps rightly so. Indices aggregate data in a way that can conceal important information. Different weighting of indicators could reflect subjective priorities that can be questioned. Yet, such indices can also provide an important and useful tool to gauge relative performance and perhaps more importantly, a powerful vehicle for policy advocacy.  Once an index is constructed, the onerous is equally on the user to delve deeper, beneath the topline rankings to paint a more detailed picture for appropriate policy intervention.  With all the criticisms in mind, the authors of the S-JJI hope to spark a more nuanced dialogue on the jobs landscape at the state level in India.

The Objectives

The S-JJI for India is the first of its kind, providing an assessment of the quantity and quality of employment across the nation.  It is a step toward providing a fact-based foundation for improving just job creation and stimulating more equitable, sustainable and job-rich economic growth in the country.

The specific objectives of creating a S-JJI for India are as follows:^[1]

1. To serve as a regular and reliable source of information on the state of employment in India, underscoring the challenges the working age population faces in finding gainful employment, securing economic mobility and harnessing its productive potential
2. To highlight differences across states uncovering important place and policy specific characteristics that may account for the differences in performance on employment
3. To serve as an advocacy tool to support polices for more and better job creation, especially in lagging states

State JustJobs Index

The following section explains the seven core dimensions of the State JustJobs Index in detail. Table 1 shows three different indicators under each respective dimension adding up to 15 indicators in total. Appendix 1 explains about each indicator in detail.

The per capita income of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan were less than the all India level. In 2015-16, the per capita income of Goa was 9.5 times higher than Bihar, the state with highest level of per capita income and of Uttar Pradesh was 1.5 times higher than Bihar, the state having lowest level of per capita income after Bihar. Over the period 2011-16, the average growth rates in per capita income of states with below national level has been slow as compare to the states with above national level. The below table shows the value of per capita income of Indian states over the period 2011-16.