Short Questions with Answers - Employment: Growth, Informalisation, and other issues

Q.1. Define employment.
Ans. Employment is a situation in which a person who is able and willing to work at the prevailing wage is engaged in productive activity and receives remuneration for that work. Employment indicates active participation in economic activities that contribute to income generation and livelihood.
Q.2. Who are workers?
Ans. Workers are persons who are engaged in economic activities-either by working for others or by operating their own enterprises-and who contribute to national output such as the Gross National Product or national income.
Q.3. What is the share of women in rural workforce.
Ans. Women workers constitute about one-third of the rural workforce, indicating a significant but unequal participation of women in rural economic activities.
Q.4. Why is it important to study about working people?
Ans. It is important to study working people to:
(i) Understand the quality and nature of employment in the country, such as whether jobs are regular or casual, secure or insecure;
(ii) Facilitate planning of human resources so that education, training and skill programmes can be designed to meet labour market needs;
(iii) Analyse the contribution of different industries and sectors towards national income and identify sectors that generate employment; and
(iv) Address important social issues such as exploitation of disadvantaged groups, child labour and gender discrimination at work.
Q.5. Why are women employed in low paid work?
Ans. Women are employed in low-paid work for several reasons:
(i) There is a division of labour between men and women rooted in historical and cultural norms that often assign lower-paid tasks to women.
(ii) Lower literacy and skill formation among many women limits access to higher-paying jobs.
(iii) Legal and institutional protection for women workers is often inadequate or poorly enforced.
(iv) Many women work in jobs with little or no job security, informal employment and absence of social benefits, which keep earnings low.
Q.6. Name different types of workers.
Ans. The different types of workers are:
(i) Regular salaried employees - workers employed by others and paid fixed wages or salaries at regular intervals;
(ii) Casual workers - workers engaged on a day-to-day or short-term basis and paid wages for the days they work;
(iii) Self-employed - persons who own and run their own enterprise or farm and earn income from that activity.
Q.7. Why is the share of self-employed is greater in rural areas?
Ans. The share of self-employed is greater in rural areas because a majority of rural households depend on agriculture and many own or operate small plots of land. Farming and related small-scale family enterprises mean people work for themselves rather than as wage employees. Limited availability of organised wage employment in rural areas also increases reliance on self-employment.
Q.8. Explain the nature of different types of workers.
Ans. The main types of workers according to their nature of work are:
(i) Self-employed worker: Those who own and operate their enterprise or farm to earn a living; they take business risks and keep any profits after expenses.
(ii) Casual wage worker: Persons engaged informally on others' farms or enterprises and paid wages for each day or short spell of work; their employment is irregular and depends on demand for labour.
(iii) Regular salaried worker: Persons hired by an employer and paid a fixed wage or salary at regular intervals, often with some employment benefits and greater job stability.
Q.9. Give an account of distribution of employment on the basis of gender.
Ans. Self-employment accounts for more than 50 per cent of the workforce and is the major source of livelihood for both men and women. Casual wage work is the second major source for both genders; it accounts for about 32 per cent of the male workforce and 37 per cent of the female workforce. For regular salaried employment, men participate more: about 18 per cent of the male workforce compared to only 10 per cent of the female workforce.
Q.10. Give the distribution of workforce by industry in rural areas.
Ans. The distribution of workforce by industry in rural areas is:
(i) Primary sector - 66.6 per cent
(ii) Secondary sector - 16.0 per cent
(iii) Tertiary sector - 17.4 per cent
Q.11. When does jobless growth take place?
Ans. Jobless growth takes place when the economy produces more goods and services but does not generate additional employment. This can happen when growth is driven by capital-intensive methods or productivity improvements that raise output without creating new jobs.
Q.12. Define casualisation of workforce.
Ans. Casualisation of the workforce means a shift from secure forms of work such as self-employment with stable enterprises or regular salaried employment towards more casual wage work that is irregular, insecure and often without social benefits.
Q.13. Which of these are unorganised sector activities?
(i) A teacher
(ii) A headload worker
(iii) A farmer
(iv) A doctor
(v) A daily wage labourer
(vi) A factory worker
Ans. The headload worker, farmer, daily wage labourer and many factory workers are typically involved in unorganised sector activities, which are small-scale, scattered units often outside formal regulation and social protection.
Q.14. Explain the employment of people in various industries and their status.
Ans. (i) Over the last six decades there has been a substantial shift of employment from agriculture to industry and services. Although the primary sector remained the main source of employment, its share fell from 74 per cent in 1951 to about 50 per cent in 2012. At the same time, the share of industry rose from 11 to 24 per cent and that of the service sector from 15 to 27 per cent during 1950-2012.
(ii) Changes in employment status show movement from self-employment and regular salaried jobs towards casual wage work, indicating a rise in insecure and irregular employment over recent decades.
Q.15. Workers are exploited in the unorganised sector. Do you agree with this view? Give reasons in support of your answer.
Ans. Yes. Workers in the unorganised sector are often exploited because these units are small, scattered and largely outside formal control. Reasons include:
(i) No clear rules and regulations are enforced for many unorganised units;
(ii) Jobs are often irregular and low paid;
(iii) There is generally no provision for overtime, paid leave or other benefits;
(iv) Workers face no job security and can be dismissed or left without work easily;
(v) Social discrimination and unequal treatment further increase vulnerability and exploitation.
Q.16. Define unemployment.
Ans. Unemployment is a situation in which a person who is willing and able to work at the prevailing wage is unable to find a job.
Q.17. Suggest one way to resolve the problem of underemployment in rural areas.
Ans. One way to reduce underemployment in rural areas is for the government to promote and locate small and medium industries or agro-based enterprises in semi-rural areas. This creates local non-farm job opportunities and reduces dependence on seasonal farm work.
Q.18. State the objective of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005.
Ans. The objective of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005 is to provide up to 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, thereby enhancing livelihood security and creating rural assets.
Q.19. What is meant by disguised unemployment? Explain giving an example.
Ans. In disguised unemployment, more people are engaged in a job than are actually needed, so some workers do not add to total output. They appear to be employed but their marginal contribution is zero. Example: If a farm needs only four people to do the work but seven family members are all engaged, the output will not fall if three of them stop working. Those three are disguisedly unemployed.
Q.20. What is unemployment? What are the most common types of unemployment found in India?
Ans. Unemployment is a situation in which people who are willing and able to work at the prevailing wages are unable to find jobs. The most common types of unemployment in India are:
(i) Seasonal unemployment: This occurs when people cannot find work during some months of the year. It is common in agriculture because work is concentrated in sowing, harvesting and other seasonal operations, leaving lean months with little or no employment.
(ii) Disguised unemployment: More people are engaged in an activity than required, so some workers' removal would not reduce total output. This is frequently observed in small family farms and informal rural enterprises.