Rural India sees growth in construction labour market

The increase in construction activity in rural areas has been driving a recovery in India's labour market instead of the services sector, cities and industrial belts.

Out of the nearly 12 million net additions to the employed workforce in January, most are helping rural India build roads and houses. In rural India, the construction and real estate sector absorbed more than 8.23 million workers in January, showed data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economic (CMIE). In comparison, the labour-intensive construction industry in urban India added no more than 350,000 people.

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Agriculture absorbed 4.26 million people while mining and manufacturing and saw a negligible growth.

This report comes at a time when the services sector has been struggling, and employment fell by more than three million in January as compared to December.

The index survey published by Knight Frank-Ficci-Naredco real estate sentiment in January showed that the real estate sector is set to witness faster growth in the next six months and the "sentiment" is much higher in west, south and east India, as against north India.

Image: In rural India, the construction and real estate sector absorbed more than 8.23 million workers in January, showed data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economic (CMIE).

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