The government recently released the results of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for April to June 2021. Among other things, the report reveals varying trends across sectors with the IT/BPO sectors leading the growth chart while Trade & hospitality sectors reporting a decline. Here are the details. Labour and Employment statistics are collected, compiled, and disseminated by several agencies in India, like the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), State governments through the Department of Labour & the Directorate of Economic & Statistics. Certain private agencies like the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) also collate data related to employment. The household-based employment surveys (like PLFS by MoSPI) provide employment scenarios for the supply-side of the labour market. One of our previous articles highlights the major employment and unemployment trends revealed in the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report 2019-20 by geography, gender, and approach. To provide a consolidated picture of the employment scenario for the demand-side of labour market, establishment-based economic census and sample surveys are required. For instance, India’s Economic Census enumerated all establishments engaged in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities excluding crop production, plantation, public administration, defence, and compulsory social security. The Labour Bureau has been entrusted with conducting the All-India Quarterly establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES), which has two components namely Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) in respect of establishments employing 10 or more workers (mostly constituting organised sector) and Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES) to build up a frame in respect of establishments (mostly in the unorganised sector) employing 9 or fewer workers. 1st Employment Survey (QES): Methodology and Limitations The present Employment Survey (QES) (April to June 2021) is the first in the series that provides estimates of employment, vacancies, training, and other related parameters for selected 9 sectors of the non-farm economy over successive quarters. The Survey aims to provide insights into relative change in the employment situation over successive quarters in the above segments of the Indian Economy. The scope of the present QES is limited only to establishments having 10 or more workers (organised sector) as identified by the Sixth Economic Census (2013-14). Further, the survey covers employment in select 9 sectors in the non-farm economy i.e., Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation & Restaurants, Information Technology (IT) & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and Financial Services. Some other notable limitations about the present QES survey are as follows: High Proprietary ownership, closely followed by Private Ltd. company and Govt./PSU ownership In the present round of QES, information was collected from 10,593 units in the select 9 sectors throughout the country. The distribution of the collected sample in terms of sector and coverage is illustrated in the chart below. The highest number of establishments were in the Education sector, closely followed by the manufacturing sector. In terms of sample allocation, the highest number of sample establishments were allotted to Manufacturing, followed by Trade and Education. In terms of ownership, the estimated establishments in the survey show the following distribution trend. Around 29% of the estimated units were under Proprietary ownership, followed by Private Limited Company at 24.8% and Government/Public Sector Units (PSUs) at 20.9%. The survey further highlights that, within Proprietary ownership, the maximum number of establishments (61.4%) were found to be in Accommodation & Restaurants, followed by 47% in the Trade sector. In the case of Private Limited Company, the highest numbers of estimated units (83.7%) were found to be in the IT/BPOs sector, followed by the Construction sector (56.3%). Within Government/PSU ownership, the highest number of estimated units were reported in the financial service sector (54.2%), followed by Education (42.7%). Overall employment improves; Growth in all sectors expect Trade, and Accommodation & Restaurant The total employment in the 9 select sectors from 1 QES (April to June 2021) stands at 3 crores 8 lakhs, against 2 crores 37 lakhs for these sectors as reported by the Sixth Economic Census (2013-14), implying a growth of 29%.