SECTOR-WISE CHANGES IN THE INDIAN LABOUR MARKET: DURING PRE AND POST WTO REGIME

The objective of this paper is to analyze the changes in the Indian labour market across the different economic sectors during the pre and post WTO periods. The study uses the Markov Chain Analysis to find the changes in the structure of the workforce across the economic sectors during the two periods. The results of Markov Chain Analysis showed that there was a larger shift in the workers from the agricultural and allied sectors with 90 percent of the workers shifting to the community, social and personal service sector during the pre WTO period. During the post WTO period it was estimated that the finance, insurance and real estate sector experienced a shift of 52 percent of workers from the agriculture sector. The study also showed that though there was an increase in the composition of the Indian labour force there was also a decline in the participation of workers in the labour market during the post WTO period compared to the pre WTO period.