One of the most basic concepts in economics is stock versus flow. Stock is a variable measured at a point in time. An individual’s net worth is a stock variable. Flow, on the other hand, is measured over a period of time. GDP, measured in a quarter or a year, is a flow variable.
It makes little sense to compare stock and flow.
In certain cases, neither stock nor flow may be to represent a certain concept. Labour markets are
Marriage and childbirth have opposite effect on the fortunes of men and women in the job market
There are enough anecdotal accounts of women being forced to quit their jobs after getting married or giving birth to a child. While a stock analysis of married/unmarried women can give an idea of whether they work or not, panel data is more revealing as it can tell whether marital status leads to job loss and gain. Since PLFS still does not follow an individual for longer than four quarters, it is not possible to analyse a sufficient sample of women under-going marriage or childbirth.
However, even keeping other factors unchanged, the paper’s findings confirm the anecdotal belief. Married women and those with children aged five years or below are more likely to lose their jobs. For men, the reverse seems to be true. To be sure, women are at a disadvantage even without being married or having children.
A huge gig economy of the poor
With the advent of technology platforms and start-ups there is a lot of talk about the gig economy, where workers can work for multiple employers. What many people do not realise is that the Indian labour market is already a gig economy, where a large number of workers keep shifting jobs. Once again, the headline numbers, which capture the net flow within different types of jobs, do not capture this movement. However, a calculation of gross flows in the paper gives more clarity on this question.
Of the average 34.37% men who were salaried or earning regular wage in a quarter, 32.12% remained regular in the consecutive quarter, and 2.25% changed their status from salaried to other working or non-working categories. This is to say that 6.55% (2.25/34.47) of salaried men left such work in the consecutive quarter. A similar calculation is possible for in-flows. Of the 34.45% regular workers in the successive quarter, 32.12% were those who were regular in the earlier quarter, and the rest 2.33% arrived from other working and non-working categories. That is to say, 6.79% (2.33/34.45) of salaried men in the successive quarter were in-flows.
These gross inflows and outflows from the status of regular workers, the best paid, is the lowest among the three kinds of workers, for both men and women. These flows are the highest for casual workers, the worst paid workers in India. This means that it is the poorer worker who changes jobs more.
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