MSMEs created 13.9% more jobs in past 4 years: Survey

Mumbai: Job creation by the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector saw a growth of 13.9 percent in the past four years, claims an industry survey. The findings are contrary to the official and other industry data which show that there were massive job losses since the note ban and GST implementation in this very sector.

While the private sector economic think-tank has found that as many as 13 million jobs were lost in 2018 alone, the official NSSO data show that unemployment rate touched a 46- year high in 2018.

According to a CII survey among over 1 lakh micro, small and medium enterprises, there has been a 13.9 percent increase net jobs additions (or 3,32,394 new jobs created), over the past four years, which is a 3.3 percent increase per annum in these four years.

The survey, which covered 1,05,347 micro, small and medium enterprises of varying sizes, across sectors, located in about 350 industrial centres spread across the country, indicates that micro enterprises were the largest job creators in the past four years and will continue to be so in the next three years.

To put the findings in context, the survey mapped the jobs figures against publicly available macro-level data sourced from the Labour Bureau (for total workforce). "Given that the total workforce size according to the Labour Bureau is estimated at 450 million, the overall job additions work out to 13.514.9 million per annum," it said.

The top job generating sectors were hospitality & tourism followed by textiles & apparel and metal products, during the past four years. Machinery parts and transport and logistics were the next significant job creators, it showed.

In terms of states, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana were the largest job creators, while in case of exporters, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana topped. "There is an expectation of higher growth on employment for the next three years," the survey said.

This optimism emanates from the fact that government initiatives like the 2 percent interest subvention given to all MSMEs and trade receivables e-discounting system (TReDS) would drive future growth leading to more employment, the report said.

On Thursday, CII had said that the recent reforms ushered in by the government are creating new livelihoods across existing and emerging sectors, with eight segments of the economy alone expected to create over 10 crore jobs by 2025. "With skill levels rising and substantial growth in startups and new businesses, the quality of jobs is being also enhanced, including through higher incomes," said CII President Rakesh Bharti Mittal.

According to Mittal, the measures to promote ease of doing business, cut in

tax rates for smaller enterprises to 25 per cent, and reduction in interest rates are creating the right atmosphere for new businesses to flourish, particularly SMEs. "This is an effective stimulant for job creation," he said.