SOIL Report 2011 - ACCESS Development Services

24 State of India’s Livelihoods Report 2011Figure 2.7: Employment by sector per 1,000 rural employed females, 1988–2010 (excluding agriculture)Source: NSSO 2007–08 (Round 64) and 2009–10 (Round 66).workers, though levels are the same as in1988 (75 in 1,000). A surprising peak in2004–05 was short-lived.• The sectors which saw a sharp increasein the number of rural men employedare construction (rising continuouslyand shooting up by nearly 50 per centin the last rwo years), trade, hotels andrestaurants (rising since 1988 and again,after a dip in 2007–08) and transport,storage and communications (peakedin 2004–05 and has been holding steadysince then).• The participation of rural women in constructionhas increased exponentially; itmore than doubled in the last two years(now at 52 in 1,000).• Rural women have not increased theirparticipation in any other off-farm sector,except trade, and hotels and restaurantswhich show a slow but uncertainupward trend.Now for the urban data on employmenttrends, 1988 to 2010 (this time agriculturehas been kept in since it is not the dominantsector).From Figures 2.8 and 2.9, we gather:• All trends, both upward and downwardare much milder and more muted forurban than for rural workers. There areno equivalents to the rapid growth ofshare by construction and other servicesin rural areas. Given the growthtrends, the distribution across sectors inurban areas has remained surprisinglyconstant.• Having said that, there has been someincrease in the number of urban meninvolved in trade, and hotels and restaurants(215/1,000 in 1988 to 270/1,000 in2010), but this has been falling since 2000.There has been some increase in the