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Shoe shine boy is an odd man out. All others (a rickshaw puller, a mason, and mechanic shop worker) are hired, workers. They render their services to their employers and receive rewards in the form of salaries or wages in return. On the other hand, shoeshine boy is a self- employed worker and carries out his occupation himself. In other words, he is engaged in his own profession.

The newly emerging jobs are found mostly in the service sector. The service sector is taking a lead over the manufacturing sector as a source of employment. It includes trade, commerce, banking, insurance, health and other services. These services are developing at a faster pace than manufacturing and other allied production activities. This is because of the globalisation of the economy.

Yes, Raj can be considered as a worker. This is because his work is contributing to the total output of the farm. Further, as implied by the definition of worker, a person who is engaged in an economic activity or is assisting anyone in an economic activity and, thereby, contributing to the GDP of the country is regarded as worker, so, Raj is a worker.

India being an agrarian economy has majority of population dependent on the agricultural sector to earn their livelihood. Although, the developmental strategies in India have aimed at the reduction of population dependent on agriculture, yet the reduction in the population engaged in agricultural sector has not been significant. In 1972-73, about 74 % of the workforce was engaged in primary sector which reduced to 60% in 1999-00.

On the other hand, the shares of secondary and tertiary sectors in employment rose from 11 % to 16 % and 15 % to 24 % respectively. The workforce distribution indicates that over the last three decades i.e. from 1972- 2000. People have moved from self-employment and regular salaried employment to casual wage worker.

This particular pattern of moving from self employment and regular salaried employment to casual wage work is termed as casualisation of workforce. Thus, it can be concluded that although changes in the distribution of workforce have taken place, yet industrial and tertiary sector need to increase their share in the workforce distribution by generating more employment opportunities and absorbing excess labour from the agricultural sector.

It is a problem of developed countries where there is no demand in the market, industries reduce their production and some workers are relieved from their jobs.

In underdeveloped countries, chronic and disguised unemployment are found due to the lack of capital.

Agriculture is a seasonal activity. In the absence of supplementary sources of employment, the farmers have to remain unemployed during slack agricultural season, similar is the position in some occupations like rice-millers, sugar mills, ice factories etc.

Casual workers refer to those workers who do not work throughout the year. They only work for few months. Casual workers are not hired by employers on a regular basis. They do not enjoy social security benefits like provident fund, gratuity, etc. They are generally unskilled workers.

For example: workers working at a construction site.

Unemployment is a situation in which the persons willing to do a work are available but do not find a job.

When the country s labour force does not get opportunities’ for gainful employment, it is termed as open unemployment. This type of unemployment is mostly found in industrial sector of our economy.

The three major sectors of an economy i.e. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary collectively are known as occupational structure of an economy. The primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, etc. The secondary sector consists of manufacturing and construction activities.

Tertiary sector includes various services like transport, communication, trade, etc. Primary sector is the prime source of employment for the majority of the workers in India. Its contribution is as high as 57.3 % of our total workforce. About 17.6% and 25.1% of the total workforce is employed in the secondary and the service sector respectively.

People living in urban areas are largely engaged in secondary and tertiary sectors and those in the rural areas are involved basically in primary sectors. Also, the tertiary sector is taking a lead over the secondary sector as a source of employment and increasing share in India’s GDP.

As far as the distribution of male and female is considered, a high percentage of total female workforces are engaged in the primary sector than in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

The following features help to recognise a worker working in the informal sector: 

1. A worker working in an enterprise (other than the public sector establishments and the private sector establishments) hiring 10 or less than 10 workers. 

2. This sector includes millions of farmers, agricultural labourers, owners of small enterprises and self employed. These sections of people are not hired, worker.

3. A worker working in informal sector does not enjoy social security benefits such as provident fund, gratuity, pension, etc.

4. The economic interest of the workers working in the informal sector is not protected by any Labour Laws other than Minimum Wages Act. Therefore, workers in the informal sector are highly exposed to the uncertainties of the market and have low bargaining power.

The percentage of female workforce in the rural areas is nearly 30% while it is only 14% 1 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, f 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 specialisations 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.

Economic growth implies growth in the GDP, i.e. growth in the aggregate output produced during an accounting period within the domestic territory of an economy. The increased output level is achieved by generating more employment opportunities and through employing better technology.

During the recent past, India has witnessed jobless economic growth that raised the aggregate output level without the proportionate rise in the employment opportunities and, consequently, unemployment continued to exist. The reason is that the rise in GDP is caused by employing modem and improved technology that substituted labour for machines. This failed to generate new employment opportunities in the industrial and tertiary sectors.

Thus, the industrial and the tertiary sectors failed to absorb the excess labour from the agricultural sector. As a result, disguised unemployment in the agricultural sector continued along with low levels of productivity and massive poverty.

In addition to this, MNCs that played an important role in India’s. economic growth provided employment only to the educated and specialised workforce. These MNCs aimed at achieving higher output levels by employing better technology rather than generating greater employment opportunities. Thus, employment generated in the country does not commensurate with the growth of GDP in India.

Lesser women are found in regular salaried employment as compared to men because. a larger proportion of women are engaged in economic activities without stable contracts and steady income. The stable contracts and steady income are two features prevalent in regular salaried employment. Women are engaged in informal segments of the economy, where they are not entitled to any social security benefits.

Moreover, women work in more vulnerable situations than men and have lower bargaining power and, consequently, are paid lesser than the male workforce. Thus, women workers are more likely to be found in the self- employment and casual work as compared to men rather than regular salaried employment.

An establishment with four hired workers is known as informal sector establishment. An informal sector is an unorganised sector of the economy. It includes all enterprises that hire less than 10 workers, except farming and self employment ventures. Therefore, an establishment with four hired workers is known as informal sector establishment.

Worker-Population ratio is defined as the proportion of population that is actively contributing to the production of goods and services. It is measured by the ratio between the country’s workforce and its total population. This ratio acts as an indicator for assessing the employment level in a particular country at any point of time.

Higher the worker-population ratio higher is the engagement of people in productive activities and vice-versa. Worker- population ratio is estimated by dividing the total workforce by the total population and multiplying by 100. Algebraically.

Worker-Population Ratio = \(\frac{Total\,Workforce}{Total\,Population}\times100\)

People work for earning their livelihood. A person who is involved in production activity contributing to the flow of goods and services in the economy is called a worker. In other words, a worker is regarded as an economic agent who contributes to the production of goods and services, thereby, to the GDP during a particular year.

A worker renders services to others and receives rewards in the form of wages, salaries or in kind. Hence, we can say that when an individual is engaged in a production activity or self employed and contributes to the generation of GDP, then, that person is referred to as a worker. For example, a doctor, an engineer working in a factory, etc.

when people do not get employment after getting education, they are called educated unemployed persons.

Disguised employment refers to a situation wherein more people are engaged in agricultural sector than required, there is a surplus workforce. If a part of them is withdrawn from there, the total produce would remain unaffected.

The main causes of educated unemployment are defective education system, lack of aptitude and technical qualifications, there is maladjustment between demand and supply of educated workers.

Yes, Victor is an unemployed worker. He works for two hours a day but a major portion of the day he is looking for work and is unemployed. This implies that he is an underemployed worker. The situation of underemployment refers to a situation in which a person gets work for lesser time than the time he actually can and wants to work.

According to the National Sample Survey Statistics, a person who is employed for less than 28 hours in a week is called underemployed. Victor could do jobs that are part time in nature like dropping newspapers, working in a restaurant, delivering couriers, bank tellers, etc.