Even as India’s unemployment rate fell from 6.1% in 2017-18 to 3.2% in 2023-24, a study of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data finds that the quality of jobs remains poor. Its Decent Work Index rose only from 0.247 to 0.302.

• The study built a multidimensional Decent Work Index (DWI) from three parts: employment status, employment opportunity and social security, across five industries: agriculture, manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail, and transport.
• Overall result: The DWI rose from 0.247 (2017-18) to 0.302 (2023-24), a gain but from a very low base.
• Uneven gains: Progress varies by sector, region, gender and caste.
• Women’s participation in the workforce has risen for the first time in decades, but job quality has not kept pace.

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines decent work as employment that offers fair income, workplace rights, social security and dignity.
• ILO’s four pillars: Employment creation, social protection, rights at work and social dialogue.
• Under the Global goal the Sustainable Development Goal 8 calls for decent work for all.

• Best gains: Manufacturing (DWI 0.324 to 0.411), helped by formalisation and digitalisation, and transport (0.285 to 0.35), helped by urban logistics and app-based platform work.
• Weakest sector: Agriculture, which employs the largest share of workers, rose only from 0.211 to 0.267. Most workers are self-employed or unpaid family workers without stable income.
• Construction and retail: Dependence on casual work, subcontracting chains and insecure arrangements.
• Informality: Nearly 90% of the workforce is informal, a share that has risen since 2019 (India Employment Report 2024, ILO and Institute for Human Development).
• Caste and gender: Women from Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes saw job quality decline even as men’s improved, and the penalty for being female and marginalised has grown since COVID-19.
• Regions: Goa, Keralam, Tamil Nadu and Haryana do better. Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh lag.
• Social security: Even in improving sectors, many workers lack written contracts, paid leave, provident fund or insurance.

• Growth: Workers without social security spend and save less and are vulnerable to shocks, which weakens demand.
• Productivity and revenue: Informality depresses productivity, narrows the tax base and raises inequality.
• Viksit Bharat 2047: A developed nation cannot rest on insecure, low-paid work.
• Measurement: India needs to judge labour markets by job quality, not only by the unemployment rate.

• Rising informality: Through contractualisation, outsourcing and gig work.
• Weak enforcement: Welfare schemes exist on paper but have implementation gaps.
• Intersecting disadvantage: Caste, gender and region compound each other.
• Labour Codes: The four Labour Codes of 2025 promised simpler rules and wider protection, but implementation is partial, and critics say compliance has eased for business while worker protection may have weakened.