Occupational Structure

OCCUPATIONAL
STRUCTURE
PRESENTED BY: TARUN VERMA

INTRODUCTION
• The term ‘occupation’ itself is indefinite as to both meaning and scope.
It has a varying intellectual content and emotional association. In all
modern languages, it has a number of synonyms and the range of
meanings.
• The meaning of ‘occupation’ has undergone continuous changes
from the times immemorial. So, its contents can be fixed definitely only
for a short period of time.
• Generally, an ‘occupation’ of an individual refers to his trade,
profession, type of work.
• Whereas ‘structure’ is the arrangement of and relations between the
parts or elements of something complex.
• Therefore, occupational structure refers to the division of its work force
engaged in different economic activities

SIGNIFICANCE
• It reflects the close relationship between economic development and
occupational structure.
• It gives proper illustration of ratio and spatial distribution of
working and non-working population.
– This relevant data have its own utility and role in policy making
– The proportion of workers engaged in various occupation highlights
economic and cultural development.
• The significance of occupational distribution of population of a region
lies in the fact that, it clearly reveals the socio-economic characteristics
of the people living that particular region. It is, hence, one of the
important measures of socio-economic development of the country.

ECONOMIC COMPOSITION
• Economic composition unfolds the diverse economic, demographic and cultural
attributes of an area, which form the basis for region's social and economic
development.
• However, the study of economic composition is handicapped by serious data gaps.
• Because not all the countries conduct their censuses regularly. Moreover, not all the
countries that conduct their censuses collect the complete labour force data. Many
countries, for example, restrict their statistical information to the size their work force
and omit its distribution into various industrial or occupational categories.
• Furthermore, different countries may use different definitions and this lack of
uniformity makes international comparisons difficult.
• The census organizations constitute the chief source of data.
• However, the recent efforts of the United Nations in the direction of the
standardization of various concepts need to be appreciated. Apart from the census
operations such sources like household surveys have also been utilized in advanced
countries to collect specialized information pertaining to economic composition of a
population. Such surveys are often resorted to for micro-level analysis.

ACTIVE POPULATION & ITS MEASURES
Classification
Total Population
Manpower
Economically Active
Population
Economically Non-Active
Population

ACTIVE POPULATION
• Total population:- refers to the entire populace inhabiting the area;
• The manpower:- consists of only those persons who could participate
in economically gainful activities and are fit enough to produce goods
and services.
– Economically Active Population:- is that part of manpower, which is
actually engaged in the production of goods and services. It
consists of both males and females.
– Economically non-active population:- is that part of manpower,
which is engaged in activities like household duties in their own
house or at the place of their relatives, retired personnel, inmates of
institutions, students and those living on royalties, rents, pensions,
etc.

MEASURES
• The magnitude of economically active population can be measured in
terms of:
– Crude activity rate
– General activity rate,
– Sex and age specific activity rate,
– Dependency ratio,
– Replacement ratios and
– Rates for working ages
(Shyrock 1976, p 202)

CRUDE ACTIVITY RATE
• The proportion of economically active population to total population is
generally known as crude activity rate.
• In those countries where labour force context is used, the proportion
of labour force to total population is known as crude labour force
participation rate.
• As is evident from the concert, the crude activity rate the crude labour
participation rate is influenced largely by the age structure.
• It is a useful index of the effect of natural increase and migration upon
economic.
Country CAR (in %age) Year
USA 62.70 Sept/2018 Monthly
UK 78.80 Jul/2018 Monthly
JAPAN 61.20 Aug/2018 Quarterly
INDIA 53.8 Dec/2017 Yearly

GENERAL ACTIVITY RATE
• It refers to the activity rate for persons of working age which is
expressed in terms of percentage, whereby the non-working age
group is excluded from the calculations.
• For instance, if in India, children below 15 years of age have no legal
sanction to work, the calculation of general activity would exclude this
population of below 15 years of age.
• Thus, in such a calculation the numerator will be the economically
active population and the denominator will be population over 15
years of age and the multiplier would be 100.

SEX & AGE SPECIFIC ACTIVITY RATE
• The sex and age specific activity rates are calculated for various age
groups by calculating the percentages of active males/females in a
specific age group to the total males and females in that particular age
group.
• Due to non-comparability of data pertaining to the economic activity
of females, activity rates are generally given for males only.

LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE

• Employment: comprises all persons of working age who during a
specified brief period, such as one week or one day, were in the
following categories:
– a) paid employment (whether at work or with a job but not at
work); or
– b) self-employment (whether at work or with an enterprise but not
at work).
• Unemployed: comprise all persons of working age who were:
– a) without work during the reference period, i.e. were not in paid
employment or self-employment;
– b) currently available for work, i.e. were available for paid
employment or self-employment during the reference period; and
– c) seeking work, i.e. had taken specific steps in a specified recent

2017

Source: The World Bank, 2017

DEPENDENCY RATIO
• The dependency ratio is generally computed by dividing the
number of children plus old people by the number of adults and
multiplying it by hundred.
• The dependency ratio is governed largely by the age structure of
the population.
• World Avg. – 58.57%
• India – 50.99%
• Source – The world bank data, 2017
HIGH LOW
Niger 111.65 UAE 17.70%
Mali 100.90 Qatar 17.90%
Uganda 99.52 Bahrain 28.36%
Chad 98.52 Macao 29.97%

DEPENDENCY RATIO
Source:
The World
Bank Data, 2017

REPLACEMENT RATIO
• The replacement ratios for working ages refer to the number of
expected entrants into specified working age group during a specific
period per hundred of expected departure due to retirement or death
during same period.
• Such a ratio is indictive of potential population replacement during a
specified period.
• A replacement for working ages on the other hand, is the number of
entrants minus the number of departures as percent of the number in
the specified working age at the beginning of the period.

WORKING FORCE & ITS DETERMINANTS
• In countries like India instead of dividing the population into two categories
of economically active and economically on-active population, the Indian
census divides the entire population into two categories of workers and non-
workers.
• In the census, the term ‘work’ is used in a special sense and therefore stress
should be applied to understand it correctly.
• ‘Work may be defined as participation in any economically productive
activity’. Such participation may be physical or mental in nature. ‘Work’
involves not only actual work but also effective supervision and direction of
work. It also includes unpaid work on farm or in family enterprise (Census of
India, 1991).
• The concept of worker was introduced, for the first time, in India, in 1961.
• Ever since the introduction of the concept in 1961, the definition of worker in
India has been changing from census to census.

• In 1961, any person who had worked for at least one hour a day on an
average during the reference period was classified as worker.
• In 1971, if a person worked on any one of the days during the
reference period of one week, was considered as worker provided
his/her main activity was economically productive work. Thus, persons
reference period of one week, prior to the date of enumeration, was
considered as a worker provided his/her main activity was
economically productive work.
• Thus, persons engaged primarily in household duties (housewives),
those getting education (students), those receiving without
participating in any productive activity (pensioners, rent-receivers,
thieves, pick-pocketers, prisoners, beggars, etc.) were classified as non-
workers.

• In 1981, Indian census for the first time divided the population into:
Population
Workers
Main
Workers
Marginal
Workers
Non-
Workers

• Main workers are those who worked in some economic activity over a
period of six months (183 days) or more in both the agricultural
seasons. In other words, main workers are those who have worked for
major part of the year preceding the enumeration.
• Marginal workers, on the other hand, were those who have worked
any time at all in the year preceding the enumeration but have not
worked for the major part of the year (less than 183 days).

Factors affecting the size of working force
Demographic
Factors
Birth Rate
Migration
Behaviour
Age Structure
Longevity of life
Social Factors
Status of
women in
society
Age at marriage
General health
Literacy &
Education
Economic
Factors
Level of income
Employment
Oppurtunities
Type of
economy

OCCUPATIONAL COMPOSITION
• The study of economic composition of population remains incomplete
without its reference to the occupational composition of population.
The occupation of an individual refers to his trade, profession, type of
work etc.
• The societies have often been classified into primary, secondary and
tertiary civilizations on the basis of occupational composition.
• For instance, societies where less than 15 per cent of workers are in
tertiary activities have been called as primary civilizations;
• those having more than 40 per cent of the workers in tertiary services as
tertiary civilizations and
• the intermediary societies with 15 to 40 per cent workers in tertiary
activities are known as secondary civilizations.

OCCUPATIONAL COMPOSITION
• Since there are innumerable number of occupations and their number and
type varies from country to country, the classification of occupation into
various categories poses a serious problem. However, the efforts made by the
United Nations towards the standardization of occupations are creditable.
• The United Nations follows the following classification (United Nations, 1964)
(i) Professional, technical and related workers;
(ii) Managerial, executive and administrative workers;
(iii) Clerical workers;
(iv) Sales workers
(v) Farmers, fishermen, hunters, lumbermen and related workers;
(vi) Workers in mines, quarries and related occupations;
(vii) Workers in transport and communication
(vii) Craftsman production process workers and labourers not classified elsewhere
ix) Service, sport and recreation workers;
(x) Workers not classified by occupation; and
(xi) Members of the armed forces.

INDUSTRIAL COMPOSITION
• Since there is a large variety of occupations in the world and the number of
occupations also varies from country to country, the international comparisons in this
regard are not very easy to attempt. Even for the same country, the difficult study of
occupational structure sometimes is difficult to comprehend due to similar reasons. It
is due to this reason that various occupations are classified into industrial categories,
• For instance, the United Nations recommends the following nine-fold industrial
classification:
(i) Agriculture, forestry and fishing:
(ii) Mining and quarrying;
(iii) Manufacturing industries:
(iv) Electricity, gas, water and sanitary services;
(v) Construction;
(vi) Commerce
(vii) Transport, storage and communication;
(viii) Services: and
(ix) Not classified elsewhere.

• Credit must be given to the UN in this regard for helping different countries in
the process of standardisation of data sheets. That is why, there is a great deal
of similarity in the industrial classification being adopted by a large number of
countries.
• The 1971 Indian Census adopted the following industrial classification:
(i) Cultivation,
(ii) Agricultural labour,
(iii) Livestock, forestry, fishing, hunting, plantations, orchards and allied activities,
(iv) Mining and quarrying,
(v) Manufacturing, processing, servicing and repairs
(a) Household industry
(b) Other than household industry
(v) Construction
(vi) Trade and Commerce
(viii) Transport and storage

• The 1981 Census of India published its data about its workers into four main
categories these are
(i) Cultivators
(ii) Agricultural labourers
(iii) Household industrial workers,
(iv) Other workers.
• The additional information, which the 1981 Census of India has brought out, is
with regard to the marginal workers.
• The Census of India decided to go back to its nine-fold classification of
occupations at the time of 1991 census.
• In 2001, they again followed four main categories.
• Thus, the classification followed by Indian Census with regard to the industrial
composition of its population is fairly comparable with the one being followed
by the United Nations.

INDUSTRIAL COMPOSITION• The non-availability of detailed latest data on the industrial composition of
world's population does not permit a detailed analysis of the world's pattern of
industrial structure.
• Broadly speaking, the less developed countries of Asia, Latin America, Africa
have large proportion of their workers ( 50 to 70 % ) in primary activities.
However, this proportion has been declining gradually with the growth of
secondary and tertiary sectors.
• On the other extreme are the developed economies like U.S.A., Canada, where
the primary activities account for less than one-tenth of their working force.
The distribution of work force in such countries has not undergone any
appreciable change during the recent decades. Their economies continue to be
dominated by secondary/tertiary workers.
• In between these two extremes, are the countries of West Europe, Australia,
New Zealand, erstwhile U.S.S.R., Japan, Israel, East European Countries,
Argentina, Chile, etc., where the proportion of workers in the primary sector is
not as low as that in the U.S and Canada. The proportion of secondary and
tertiary workers in such countries is of intermediate level.

REFERENCE
• Chandna, R. C. (2016), Geography of Population, Kalyani Publishers, New
Delhi
• Census of India (1971), Indian Census in Perspective, Office of the
Registrar General, Government of India, New Delhi
• International Labour Organisation (1990), Introduction, International
Standard Classification of Occupation, (ISCO-88), Geneva
• The World Bank (2017), Data on Labour Force Participation Rate,
Washington DC
• United Nations Organization (1964), Data on Occupational Composition,
New York
• Websites:-
– https://ourworldindata.org/
– http://fortune.com/2015/03/05/women-in-the-workforce/
– https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/Labor_force_participation/

Thank You!! 
Email – tarunrocks889@gmail.com

Occupational Structure

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