Marginal' dip in manufacturing jobs during Covid-19 pandemic: ASI

The number of people engaged in the manufacturing sector and the amount of wages earned by them bounced back in FY22 after a “marginal fall” in FY21 due to the Covid pandemic, the latest annual survey of industries (ASI) data for the years 2020-21 & 2021-22 released on Monday said. According to ASI data, the employment in the manufacturing sector during the Covid pandemic year (FY21) declined by 3.2 per cent (year-on-year) to 16.08 million. Similarly, their total earnings slightly fell 1.6 per cent to Rs 4.83 trillion in FY21. However, in FY22, the total number of people engaged in the manufacturing industries rose by 7 per cent (Y-o-Y) to 17.21 million and the total emoluments earned by them rose by 15.9 per cent to Rs 5.6 trillion compared to the preceding year. “The ASI results for the year 2021-22 exhibit the resilience shown by the Indian manufacturing sector and tell the unique turnaround story of the Indian manufacturing sector after the adverse effect of the pandemic witnessed in 2020-21 in terms of output and input contraction and also a marginal fall in employment,” the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said in a statement.