The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Share of people working as regular wage employees has seen a greater decline among religious minority groups such as Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, as compared to the majority Hindu population in the last five years, Business Standard, in an analysis of the latest annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, has reported.
Among these minorities, workers belonging to the Muslim community saw the greatest decline between 2018-19 and 2022-23.
The PLFS was launched by the National Sample Survey Office in April 2017. It estimates the key employment and unemployment indicators such as Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, and Unemployment Rate. It further measures the employment status among social and religious groups.
According to the business daily, while 22.1% workers belonging to the Muslim community worked as wage employees in 2018-19, the share fell to 15.3% in 2022-23, marking a 6.8 percentage point decline.
“Similarly, the population belonging to the Christian community saw a 3.2 percentage point decline, as only 28% of Christian workers had regular jobs in 2022-23, down from 31.2% in 2018-19,” it said.
“This is followed by the population of the Sikh community as it saw a 2.5 percentage point decline. Only 26% Sikh workers had wage employment in 2022-23, down from 28.5% in 2018-19,” it said.
“In comparison, deterioration in the quality of employment is the least for the majority Hindu community. Here, 21.4% workers had regular salaried jobs in 2022-23, down by 2.3 percentage points from 23.7% in 2018-19,” it added.
The business daily further reported that while self-employment has seen an increase across all religious groups, the share of casual workers has gone up only in the Muslim community.
About 26.3% Muslim workers worked as casual labourers in 2022-23, up from 25.7% in 2018-19. This is in contrast to other religious groups like Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, which have seen a decline in the share of population working as casual labourers, it said.
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In October 2023, The Wire had reported that among major religious groups, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) and worker population ratio (WPR) of only Muslims have declined during the same period.
The labour force participation rate is the share of population which is looking for work, and the worker population ratio is the share of the working age population that has work.
The LFPR for ages 15 years and above increased to 57.9% in 2022-23 from 55.2% in 2021-22 and 54.9% in 2020-21. It was 49.8% in 2017-18 and 50.2% in 2018-19. The WPR for persons of ages 15 years and above increased to 56% in 2022-23 from 52.9% in 2021-22 and 52.6% in 2020-21.
However, the LFPR and WPR for only the Muslim community has fallen.
For Muslims, the LFPR stood at around 35.5% in 2020-21 and 35.1% in 2021-22. It declined to 32.5% in 2022-23.
Explaining this data point, Santosh Mehrotra, professor of economics, Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, had told The Wire, “Muslims have a higher share in the urban population than their share in the rural population. [This is] because most Muslims live in urban areas. So, when the labour market revived in the first post-COVID year, unfortunately, there’s has been a sharp 2 percentage point decline in the WPR of Muslims.”
“[Note that] WPR tracks the LFPR…As the labour market revived, this is clear evidence that the Muslims have taken the brunt,” he said.
The report noted that a larger number of individuals are engaged in self-employment than those in casual labour and the regular salaried class.