Estimating Occupational Structure of the Labour Force within Economic Sectors in the Target Year

The total output in the economy, the sectoral shares therein and labour productivity in each sector are now known for the target year. However, the input ‘labour’ is not a homogeneous category. There are a large number of persons with diverse occupational skills in each economic sector. There is need for information about the occupational structure of the economic sectors not only in the base year but also in the target year. The structure would have changed because of several interventions.

For this purpose, a typology of occupations is required so that a large number of occupations can be classified for operational purposes. The census of India follows an eight-fold classification of occupations for reporting about the occupational structure of the labour force. There is also an International Standard Classifications of Occupations (ISCO). The classification of occupations made at the first layer under the ISCO is as follows:

1.  Professional, technical and related workers;
2.  Administrative and Managerial workers;
3.  Clerical and related workers;
4.  Sales workers;
5.  Service workers;
6.  Agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry workers, fisherman and hunters;
7.  Production and related workers, transport equipment operators and labourers;
8.  Workers not classifiable by occupation and defence personnel.

The proportion of persons in each of these eight major occupational groups in the ten major industrial sectors of the economy are estimated for the base year. These proportions will change for the target year in relation to changes in the economy, technology and investment policies. The sum of occupational distributions of persons in all the ten economic sectors derived on the basis of proportions estimated for the target year will provide the aggregate distribution in the economy. For instance, sales workers in all economic sectors could be aggregated to get total sales workers in the economy. The same procedure applies for other occupational groups.