Some PerspectiveAnalysis

Jobs

The post-2017 formal employment drop is visible in the data

Formal employment share: 12.5% (2016) → 12.2% (2017) → 11.9% (2018) → 11.6% (2019). The 2016-2019 window — demonetisation, GST, the 2017-18 PLFS leak — coincides with the steepest sustained decline in formal employment share in the modern series.

A policy regime can be visible in a labour market series even before the headline reports catch up.

Explore this in the live data →

About this reading

This is one of 36 standing analyses drawn from the Some Perspective dataset. It is not dated commentary: it describes a relationship in the data that holds across the series, and it is regenerated whenever the underlying dataset is refreshed. The figures quoted here reflect the 2026-08-15 data vintage.

← GDP growth volatility has risen — the boom and b…  ·  Twelve consecutive years of formal employment de… →

Raman, V.S. Some Perspective: India's Economic Transformation. someperspective.info · CC BY 4.0 · data vintage 2026-08-15. Cite & download · All analyses