What does payroll data tell about J&K job seekers?

New Delhi: Unlike the rest of India, people in Jammu and Kashmir are entering the workforce late, latest Payroll data shows lending a fresh understanding of the labour market in the J&K that has been more in news for political reasons than economic ones.

In the month of November, at least 11,887 people aged 35 or above were in formal sector jobs, whereas 6,536 were in the age group of 29-35. If you club both the age group and consider the 29 and above age group as one cohort then the number is nearly three and half times more than that of the 18-25 age group considered prime time for fresh job seekers in the labour market.

While the late entry into formal jobs is seen as a good indication of formal employment crisis in the erstwhile state that was bifurcated into two union territories after the abrogation of Article 370, experts argue that this has to be seen along with socio-political alternatives available in the region.

Other than lack of enough opportunities, there are three reasons – educational, political and administrative – that is driving such a trend, said K.R. Shyamsundar, a labour economist.

“Disruption of social peace delay and affect acquirement of labour market endowment,” said Shyamsundar, also a professor at XLRI, Jamshedpur. “You have to understand that youth face two kinds of mobilization – economic and political. In J &K political mobilization of youth for various reasons outpaces the economic mobilization,” he added.

Shyamsundar argued that how “continued unrest, government’s law and order actions, educational institutions’ frequent shut down it take a longer time to complete their courses hence delay in graduation of youth from schools and colleges” too contribute to the delayed economic entry of people in that region.

The governance failure and administrative challenges also impact the social security adherence and EPFO which has just entered the two UTs will find it tough to cover a wider group of people without a sustained and prolonged effort.

As per the payroll data, which extrapolates numbers from the new subscriber’s base of employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), 3106 workers joined formal work in the 26-28 age group. In the age group of 18-25 this number is little over 5600 were either joined or were in the formal work. In the labour market, the 18-25 age group is generally looked at as fresh job seeking age.

Following abrogation of article 370, EPFO started covering the J&K region for the first time in November 2019, and thus some payroll data. The data indicates the shortage of jobs in the region. According to EPFO, the education providers, manpower companies, handicraft suppliers, and tourism and hotels are the key employers in the J&K and Ladakh union territories.

At the national level, at least 867,964 new people joined the formal workforce in November 2019, an improvement from October 2019 but less than any other months in the 2019-20 financial year. In November, of the total new payroll additions, some 462,550 were in the 18-25 age group, almost 100,000 more than whet was reported in October, Mint reported on Tuesday.