Centre to create centralised jobs database

Employment data is produced by entities like the RBI and the Ministry of Statistics, which conduct quarterly and annual Periodic Labour Force Surveys.

New Delhi: Labour and employment minister Mansukh Madaviya on Friday led interministerial discussions on creating a centralised database of jobs generated in the economy, an idea he broached citing employment data scattered across agencies and ministries, which could be a reason for the lack of a comprehensive picture on hirings.

Union labour and employment minister Mansukh Madaviya (File Photo)

Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal, Mandivya, and labour secretary Sumita Dawra, among others, participated in a roundtable with representatives of over a dozen ministries and agencies. “There is a need to create linkages between different data sources. Data should not exist in silos,” Mandaviya said.

Employment numbers are generated by several entities, such as the Reserve Bank and the ministry of statistics, which carries out quarterly and annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).

Payroll data are also generated or maintained by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, the state-run retirement fund manager, the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme, the National Pension Scheme, and the state-run think tank Niti Aayog, among others.

Since several ministries maintain records of employment created through different federal programmes administered by them, the government could be underestimating total job creation in a given period, an official said, asking not to be quoted.

While the nodal authority for tracking critical data, such as GDP growth and job creation, is the National Statistical Office of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, the labour and employment ministry is responsible for making policies, such as social schemes, for the workforce.

“The lack of a central database means that the government doesn’t have an institutional mechanism to access comprehensive information on jobs data reported by various ministries,” the official said.

All existing mechanisms of tracking employment, such as the flagship sample surveys of the NSO, will continue.

The plan is to have all employment-data-generating ministries to seamlessly upload their information on to a central portal-like platform so that it is handy and there is no blind spot, the official said.

The labour ministry feels many programmes geared towards the labour market and their contribution in creating jobs are not being tapped because there is no central database with details of all such sectoral schemes. There will be more rounds of meetings to finalise the plan, the official said.