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Formal job coverage fell by 1.4 points over six years of the labour survey
On the Periodic Labour Force Survey, the share of all workers in regular wage or salaried jobs with any social security fell from 11.5% in 2017-18 to 10.1% in 2023-24, a drop of 1.4 points, or about 12%. It did not fall in every year, and its lowest point was 9.6% in 2022-23. Two things moved underneath it. Regular wage and salaried work slipped from 22.8% to 21.7% of all workers, and the share of those employees without any social security rose from 49.6% to 53.4%, after a peak of 54.2% in 2019-20. Over part of the same period, NITI Aayog estimates the gig workforce grew from 2.5 million (2011-12) to 6.8 million (2019-20).
What follows. More than half of India's regular salaried employees have no social security, a larger share than in 2017-18.
Workers in regular jobs with social security
2004-2013 average none published; 2014-2026 average 10.4%; latest 10.1% in 2023. Source, method and every year.
One of 37 readings of the dataset, rebuilt whenever the data are refreshed. Data vintage 2026-10-10. Cite as Raman, V.S., Some Perspective: India's Political Economy, 2004-2026, someperspective.info, CC BY 4.0.