Economy · Sub-pillar 4.1
Incomes and quality jobs
Wages, formal employment, job security, safe and decent working conditions, and the creation of enough good jobs for a young workforce.
What is incomes and quality jobs?
Incomes and quality jobs is sub-pillar 4.1 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the first of nine sub-pillars under the Economy pillar. It asks whether the economy creates enough good, secure, formal jobs with safe and decent working conditions for a young workforce, and whether wages rise over time.
Why it matters for 2047
A developed country is, before anything else, a country where ordinary work pays enough to live well. India's path to high-income status runs through the pay packet: whether a young person leaving school or college finds a job at all, whether it comes with a contract, leave and a pension, and whether it pays more each year than the last.
India has the largest working-age population in the world and will keep adding to it into the 2040s. That is an advantage only if the jobs exist; a generation that works in insecure, low-paid, informal employment carries that insecurity into old age and passes it to its children.
The quality of a job matters as much as its existence. More than half of Indian workers are self-employed and a fifth work as casual labour; among those with a regular salary, most have no written contract or social security. 47 BH tracks formality and conditions, not just headcounts.
Where India stands
- $2,760
was India's gross national income per person in 2025 by the World Bank's Atlas method, in the lower-middle-income band (US$1,176 to US$4,635). High-income status, the 2047 goal, begins above US$14,375.[1]
- 23.6%
of Indian workers aged 15 and over had a regular wage or salaried job in 2025; 56.2% were self-employed and 20.2% were casual labourers, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey.[2]
- 53.4%
of regular salaried employees were not eligible for any social security benefit in 2023-24, and 58% had no written job contract, according to the PLFS annual report for that year.[3]
- 3.1%
was the unemployment rate for people aged 15 and over in 2025; the labour force participation rate was 59.3% overall but 40.0% for women against 79.1% for men.[2]
Unemployment as officially measured is low, and participation has risen, especially among women, from the lows of the last decade. [2] The problem is less the absence of work than its quality: fewer than one worker in four draws a regular salary, and of those, more than half have no social security and more than half no written contract. [2][3]
Earnings tell the same story. In 2025 a male regular salaried worker earned about Rs 24,217 and a female one Rs 18,353; a self-employed woman earned about Rs 6,374, and casual labourers earned Rs 455 (men) and Rs 315 (women) a day. [2] Women's participation at 40% remains far below men's, which is the single largest untapped source of income growth in the country. [2]
At US$2,760 per head, India is a lower-middle-income country; reaching the high-income threshold by 2047 requires income per person to grow more than fivefold in real terms. [1] A note on the numbers: PLFS 2025 uses a revised sample design and is not strictly comparable with earlier years; the survey counts anyone who worked for even part of the year as employed, so the unemployment rate understates underemployment; earnings are self-reported.
On the 47 BH report card
Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:
- Gross national income per person, Atlas method (World Bank).
- Share of workers in regular salaried jobs, and share of them with a written contract and social security (PLFS).
- Female labour force participation rate (PLFS).
- Workplace fatalities (DGFASLI).
Two lenses on incomes and quality jobs
City and village
47 BH asks whether a young person in a small town has a route to a formal job without migrating, and whether a worker in a city factory or on a delivery platform has the contract, leave and insurance that make a job secure. Self-employment dominates in villages and casual work follows the construction boom in cities; formality is scarce in both.
Learn, avoid, protect
- Learn
- What can India learn from countries that moved workers into formal, higher-paying jobs through labour-intensive manufacturing, apprenticeships and portable social security, and from its own states where female participation is highest?
- Avoid
- Which mistakes should it avoid, such as counting any work as a job, protecting a small formal sector while the rest stay informal, or treating gig work as flexibility when it is insecurity?
- Protect
- What of its own should it protect, such as the work ethic and entrepreneurial energy of its self-employed, the family enterprises that absorb millions, and the digital rails that could make social security portable for every worker?
What this sub-pillar does not cover
Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:
- Vocational training and the ability to reskill: Learning: Skills and lifelong learning
- Ending extreme poverty and inequality: Economy: Poverty and inequality
- Output per worker and the shift into manufacturing and services: Economy: Productivity and structural change
- Savings, insurance and pensions as household protection: Economy: Financial security
- Women's participation in work as a question of equality: Family and Society: Women's participation and safety
Questions about incomes and quality jobs
What is India's per capita income?
US$2,760 in 2025 by the World Bank's Atlas method, which keeps India in the lower-middle-income group (US$1,176 to US$4,635). The high-income threshold in the July 2026 classification is US$14,375. [1]
What is India's unemployment rate?
3.1% for people aged 15 and over in calendar year 2025, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey annual report. The labour force participation rate was 59.3% and the worker-population ratio 57.4%. [2]
How many Indian workers have formal jobs?
23.6% of workers aged 15 and over had a regular wage or salaried job in 2025. Among regular salaried employees in 2023-24, 58% had no written contract and 53.4% were not eligible for any social security benefit. [2][3]
How much do Indian workers earn?
In 2025, regular salaried men earned about Rs 24,217 and women Rs 18,353; self-employed men about Rs 17,914 and women Rs 6,374; casual labourers Rs 455 (men) and Rs 315 (women) per day, according to PLFS. [2]
Why does 47 BH count job quality, not just jobs?
Because a job without a contract, leave or a pension leaves a family one illness away from hardship. A developed Bharat is one where most work is secure, not just where most people are working.
Sources
- World Bank, "FY27 Updated Country Income Classification", July 2026, with India's 2025 GNI per capita as reported by Drishti IAS, 8 July 2026. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099063026190549947/pdf/BOSIB-8ff63426-3c40-412d-bad2-cc20a4ebea81.pdf
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, "Press note on Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report, 2025 (January to December 2025)", March 2026. https://www.mospi.gov.in/uploads/latestReleases/latest_release_1774607827733_3e8964a9-268b-4cc9-ad65-cfc8a9e32f08_Press_note_AR_PLFS_2025_23032025_V2.1_26032026_final.pdf
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, "Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report, July 2023 to June 2024", September 2024; highlights as summarised by PARI Library. https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/periodic-labour-force-survey-plfs-annual-report-july-2023-june-2024/
47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.