Please refer to Employment: Growth, Informalisation and Related Issues Class 11 Economics notes and questions with solutions below. These revision notes and important examination questions have been prepared based on the latest Economics books for Class 11. You can go through the questions and solutions below which will help you to get better marks in your examinations.
Class 11 Economics Employment: Growth, Informalisation and Related Issues Notes and Questions
1) What is in formalization of workforce?
Ans. In formalization of work force refers to a situation whereby the proportion of workforce in the informal sector to total workforce increases.
2) Why is self-employed workforce higher in rural areas?
Ans. In case of rural areas, self-employed workers are greater as majority of rural people are engaged in farming on their own plots of land.
3) Who is casual wage laborer?
Ans. Workers who are not hired by their employers on a regular or permanent basis (i.e. don’t have job security) and do not get social security benefits, are formed as casual wage labour.
4) Why do we differentiate between economic activity and production activity?
Ans. We differentiate to calculate the number of workers. People engaged only in production economic activities are to be included in the category of workless.
5) Differentiate between worker, non-worker and unemployed.
A person who is actually engaged in some economic activity is a worker;
a person who is neither looking for a work nor working is a non-worker.
A person who is looking for a suitable job as per his abilities but is not finding one is unemployed.
6) Define worker population ratio.
Worker population ratio is defined as the ratio between the total number of workers in a country and the population in the country. It is also termed as Workforce Participation Rate (Ratio). Symbolically, it can be represented as: Worker Population Ratio = Total Number of Workers Total Population ×100
7) Compared to urban women, more rural women are found working. Why?
Answer. Participation rate for women is higher in rural areas compared with urban areas. It is because in rural areas, poverty forces women to seek employment. Without education, women in rural areas find only less productive jobs and get low wages. In urban areas, men are able to earn high incomes. So they discourage female members from taking up jobs.
8) Meena is a housewife. Besides taking care of household chores, she works in the cloth shop which is owned and operated by her husband. Can she be considered as a worker? Why?
Answer. Meena is a self-employed worker. She is working in her husband’s cloth shop. She will not get salary but in same time she is contributing to her family income. she is also
engaged in a economic activity which contribute production to national income of an economy.
9) Give three sources that collect data on unemployment.
Ans. (a) Reports of census of India.
(b) National sample survey organization reports of employment and unemployment situation and.
(c) Directorate general of employment and training date of registration with employment exchange.
10) Do you think that in the last 50 years, employment generated in the country is commensurate with the growth of GDP in India? How?
Answer. Jobless growth is defined as a situation in which there is an overall acceleration in the growth rate of GDP in the economy which is not accompanied by a commensurate expansion in employment opportunities. This means that in an economy, without generating additional employment we have been able to produce more goods and services. Since the starting of economic reforms in 1991, our economy is experiencing a gap between GDP growth rate and employment growth rate that is, jobless growth.
11) Explain different types of unemployment prevails in urban regions.
a) Frictional unemployment is defined as the unemployment that occurs because of people moving or changing occupations.
b) Structural unemployment is defined as unemployment arising from technical change such as automation, or from changes in the composition of output due to variations in the types of products people demand. For example, a decline in the demand for typewriters would lead to structurally unemployed workers in the typewriter industry.
c) Cyclical unemployment is defined as workers losing their jobs due to business cycle fluctuations in output, i.e. the normal up and down movements in the economy as it cycles through booms and recessions over time.
d) Open Unemployment refers to that situation wherein the worker is willing to work and has the necessary ability to work yet he does not get work and remains unemployed for full time.
e) Technological Unemployment:- A somewhat structural unemployment may take place in an economy as a result of technological improvement. Such unemployment may be described as technological unemployment. Due to the introduction of new machinery, improvement in methods of production, labour – saving devices etc., some workers tend to be replaced by machines. Their unemployment is termed as “technological unemployment.”
f) Educated Unemployment:- Among the educated people, apart from open unemployment, many are underemployed because their qualification does not match the job. Faulty education system, mass output, preference for white collar jobs, lack of employable skills and dwindling formal salaried jobs are mainly responsible for unemployment among educated youths in India. Educated unemployment may be either open or underemployment.
12) What are different aspects of quality of employment?
There are certain criteria on the basis of which we can check quality of employment such as productivity of employment; proportion of workers engaged in regular and casual labour; and proportion of workers in organized and unorganized sectors.
Productivity of employment: Only the status of being employed does not itself necessarily ensure a decent level of living in India. In 1999-2000, of the total employed persons about 23.87% are the working poor.
This means that the major problem relates to that of the working poor as the productivity of employment is very low. Low educational and skill levels of the workers are main causes of the low productivity of employment.
Proportion of workers in organized and unorganized sector: If the share of unorganized employment increases, it means an overall deterioration in the quality of employment. The quality of employment can be considered low if the size of unorganized sector is larger than the organized sector. It was only about 7% of the total employment in 1999-2000 and over the years the share of the organized sector employment has been shrinking.
We may note that manufacturing construction, trade and transport are sectors where there is large concentration of unorganized workers. The share of the unorganized sector employment which was estimated to be around 93% before 1997 should have gone up and may further increase over the coming years as there was an increase in the absolute numbers.
Many studies at micro level show that flexibility in the labour market increased after the introduction of economic reforms in the country.
Despite the existence of restrictive labour laws, the firms have been able to retrench a large number of permanent workers while many units were closed leading to unemployment of thousands of workers during the reform period.
Proportion of workers engaged as regular and causal labour: At present, low earning, poor condition of work, lack of social protection vulnerability to the risks, hazards, irregularity and uncertainty of work availability .Such problems in the economy has been felt due to the increase in the casualization of the workforce .
This is also a dimension of deterioration in the quality of employment. Those in regular wage paid or salaried jobs continue to constitute around 14% of all workers for over two decades from 1977-78 to 1999-2000. The category of casual employment has steadily increased from 27% in 1977-78 to 32% in 19993 -1994 and rose further to 33% in 1999-2000.
13) The following table shows the population and worker population ratio for India in 1999-2000. Can you estimate the workforce (urban and total) for India?
Answer. Estimated number of workers (in crores) for urban =28.52100 x 33.7 = 9.61 crores Total workforce = 30.12 + 9.61 = 39.73 crores
14) Analyses the recent trends in sectoral distribution of workforce in India.
Answer. The data in occupational structure is as follows (for the year 1999-2000):
(a) Industry wise the distribution is:
(i) 37.1% of workforce is engaged in primary sector.
(ii) 18.7% of workforce is engaged in secondary sector.
(iii) 44.2% of workforce is engaged in tertiary sector.
(b) Area wise the data is:
(i) In rural areas: 77% of workforce is in primary sector. 11% of workforce is in secondary sector. 12% of workforce is in tertiary sector.
(ii) In urban areas: 10% of workforce is in primary sector. 31% of workforce is in secondary sector. 59% of workforce is in tertiary sector.
2. The data reveals that:
(a) Economic backwardness in the country as 60% of workforce is engaged in agricultural activities. A large proportion of population depend on agriculture for their livelihood. (b) In urban area, tertiary sector account for 59% of workforce. It shows development and growth in the tertiary sector and the fact that this sector is able to generate sustainable employment and provide livelihood to 59% of the workforce.
3. It can be concluded that in the urban areas, tertiary sector is the main source of livelihood for majority of workforce.
15) Compared to urban women, more rural women are found working. Why?
The percentage of female workforce in the rural areas is nearly 30 % while it is only 14 % in the urban areas. This depicts that as compared to the urban women more rural women accounts for higher share in the female workforce. While on the one hand, the rural women are less educated, unskilled and low productive, on the other hand, urban women being more educated and more skilled and productive have higher probability to get employment. Ironically, the urban female accounts for
lesser share in the female workforce as compared to their rural counterparts. The following are the reasons for low share of urban females in the total female workforce:
1. As in the agricultural and allied activities, high degree of skills and specializations is not required, so, rural women engage themselves to support their family on farms.
2. As poverty in the rural areas is more widespread than in the urban areas, so, the rural women engage themselves in low productive jobs just to support the livelihood of their families.
3. As the urban families usually earn comparatively higher income than the rural families and, further, poverty in the urban areas is not as widespread as that of in the rural areas, so, there is lesser need for female members to get themselves employed.
4. The decision to take up jobs by the female members rests on the family’s decision rather than her individual decision.
5. Although female literacy in India is improving, yet it has to get much better before urban female accounts for higher share in the total female workforce.
1) The unemployment rate for _ are found to be higher than for
a) Males, Females
b) Urban .rural
c) Females, Males
d) Both a and b
Ans. Females, Males
2) You are a factory owner and have given employment to 400 workers. If 10 workers are dismissed by you without loss of production then this situation will be described as
a) structural unemployment
b) disguised unemployment
c) seasonal unemployment
d) casual unemployment
Ans. disguised unemployment
3) Over the 7 years period from 2004-2005 to 2010-2011 inflation rate has been _ percent per annum
a) 6
b) 7
c) 5
d) 4
Ans. 6
4) Why did the government shift its strategy from long term to short term programmers to remove unemployment?
a) Large Scale Corruption
b) Long term programmers takes a long time to implement
c) Lack of funds
d) Lukewarm response from the state governments
Ans. Long term programmers takes a long time to implement
5) Define Jobless Growth.
Jobless growth is defined as an economic phenomenon in which an economy experiences growth while maintaining or decreasing its level of employment.
6) Which of the following is not the measures of employment and unemployment?
a) Usual Principal Status (UPS),
b) Usual Principal and Subsidiary Status (UPSS),
c) Current Monthly Status (CMS)
d) Current Daily Status (CDS).
Ans. Current Monthly Status (CMS)
7) The job security that a worker enjoys is in which sector?
a) Unorganized Sector
b) Agriculture Sector
c) Organized Sector
d) Private Sector
Ans. Organized Sector
8) In rural area unemployment is
1) Disguised Unemployment
2) Industrial Unemployment
3) Seasonal Unemployment
4) 1 & 3
Ans. 1 & 3
9) When does underemployment occur?
a) When people do not want to work
b) When people are not skilled
c) When people are not paid for their work
d) When people are working less than they are capable of
Ans. When people are working less than they are capable of
10) What type of unemployment does urban area suffer from?
a) Open Unemployment
b) Disguised Unemployment
c) Seasonal Unemployment
d) None
Ans. Open Unemployment
11) An establishment with four hired workers is known as which sector establishment.
a) Informal
b) Formal
c) Both
d) None
Ans. Informal
12) Which of the following is false regarding disguised unemployment a) The mounting pressure of population in rural areas with no alternative employment
b) The marginal productivity of a worker is high
c) A feature of the agrarian economy
d) None
Ans. The marginal productivity of a worker is high
13) The newly emerging jobs are found mostly in the______ sector (service/manufacturing).
Answer. Service.
14).An establishment with four hired workers is known as (formal/informal) ______sector establishment.
Answer. Informal.
15) Find the odd man out
(i) owner of a saloon with more than 10 employees
(ii) a cobbler
(iii) a cashier in Mother Dairy
(iv) a tuition master (v) transport operator
(vi) construction worker.
Answer. Owner of a saloon, self-employed and formal sector
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