Future of Labour Force Participation in Transitional Economy: Evidence from India

Managing plentiful labour force efficiently is a challenging task for the transitional economies but shortfall creates problem in developed world. India, with a huge bulk of younger population, is going to produce a huge supply of labour force in coming decades. Utilizing three rounds of NSSO data during 1999-2009 on Employment and Unemployment Survey and scientifically projected population based on 2001 Census, the present paper has explored likely scenario of labour force in India and its 21 major states. The entry and exit rate method for synthetic cohort, developed by OECD has been applied for projection of labour force. The LFPR among women in India is much lower among females compared to males and likely to increase among females but will remain stagnant among males till 2051. Female LFPR will decline among youths and will increase rapidly in the late adulthood. This seems to be a serious policy concern.