NEW DELHI: Small businesses across manufacturing, trade and services in the country employed more than 12 crore workers between Oct 2023 and Sept this year, adding more than one crore employees since 2022-23, while total number of units rose from 6.5 crore to over 7.3 crore in 2023-24, highlighting the crucial sector’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey showed on Tuesday.
Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) for 2023-24, which maps various economic and operational parameters of the non-farm unincorporated sector across manufacturing, trade and services, showed estimated number of establishments grew by 12.8% between Oct 2023-Sept 2024 compared to the previous year, while total employment registered a growth of 10.1% during the same period.
“The sector has exhibited significant year-on-year growth across key economic and operational metrics, including estimated number of establishments, workers, wages and emoluments and productivity,” according to fact sheet of the survey.
The survey results showed that growth has largely been driven by the services sector, which saw establishments rising by 23.6%, employment by 17.9% and gross value added – a key measure of economic activity – showing a growth of 26.2%. The average emoluments per hired worker rose by 13% from Rs 124,842 in 2022-23 to Rs 141,071 in 2023-24. Unincorporated non farm establishments are not incorporated. which means they are neither registered under the Companies Act 1956 nor under the 2013 Act.
“The unincorporated non-agricultural sector, comprising small manufacturing, trade and other services, plays a crucial role in the economy… contributing significantly to employment,” Saurabh Garg, secretary at the ministry of statistics and programme implementation told reporters, while releasing the survey.
The survey also showed that percentage of female-owned proprietary establishments increased from 22.9% in 2022-23 to 26.2% in 2023-24. “This trend indicates a positive shift in the participation of women in business ownership, highlighting an increase in female entrepreneurship over the given period,” according to the survey.
Percentage of establishments using internet has also grown from 21.1% in 2022-23 to 26.7% in 2023-24, highlighting greater adoption of technology by small businesses and penetration of digital technology.
