This paper explores employment trends in India since the mid-1990s based on study of various rounds of National Sample Survey unit level data. The major findings are of a structural transformation with an absolute fall in agricultural employment and a rise in non-agricultural employment, increasing participation in education, decline in child labour, mechanisation of agriculture and rising living standards in rural areas due to a growth in real wages which led to a decline in workforce, most of which was of women leaving the workforce. A fall in demand for manufacturing exports and increasing capital intensity also resulted in a decline in manufacturing employment during 2004-05 - 2009-10. The paper estimates that approximately 17 million jobs per annum need to be created in non-agriculture during 2012-17. Based on these estimates, the paper makes policy suggestions to increase non-agricultural employment in India.
