India, Sept. 3 -- The Government of India issued the following news release:
Snapshot:
National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), has released the first Quarterly Bulletin of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (QBUSE), providing estimates for January-March 2025 and April-June 2025.
The QBUSE is the quarterly edition of the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), presenting key estimates at more frequent intervals based on the data collected in the quarters in ASUSE.
Number of establishments in the unincorporated sector is estimated at 7.85 crore in January-March 2025 and 7.94 crore in April-June 2025.
Employment in the sector crossed the 13 crore mark for the first time in January-March 2025, reaching 13.13 crore - well above all previous ASUSE annual estimates.
Both establishments and employment in the sector have risen sharply in these quarters over the levels reported in the ASUSE 2023-24 annual estimates.
Female workers accounted for over 28% of total employment in both quarters reflecting a marginal increase from ASUSE 2023-24.
NSO Releases First Quarterly Estimates of the Unincorporated Non-Agricultural Sector for the quarters January to March 2025 and April to June 2025
In line with its commitment to enhancing the availability of high-frequency indicators, the National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), has released the first Quarterly Bulletin on Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (QBUSE) for the quarters January to March 2025 and April to June 2025. The Quarterly Bulletin (QBUSE) is the quarterly edition of the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), presenting key estimates at more frequent intervals. The introduction of QBUSE represents NSO's sustained effort to bring out timely data and provide access to actionable information to the policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders on one of the most dynamic segments of India's economy.
While the detailed annual estimates on a larger set of financial and non-financial indicators will continue to be published from ASUSE, the quarterly bulletin is designed to deliver timely and periodic estimates on the scale, composition, and employment perspective of India's unincorporated non-agricultural enterprises with quarterly frequency between the annual estimates using the same framework as of ASUSE. The quarterly data aim to capture the short term dynamics in the unincorporated non-agricultural sector.
The unincorporated non-agricultural sector is a key driver of India's economy, generating large-scale employment and contributing significantly to GDP. It provides essential livelihood opportunities, fosters small-scale entrepreneurship, and supports local supply chains across rural and urban areas. Recognizing its importance, NSO started conducting ASUSE from 2021-22 annually and so far conducted three annual surveys for the years 2021-22 (Apr 21-Mar22) , 2022-23 (Oct 22-Sept 23) and 2023-24 (Oct 23-Sept 24). These surveys have provided detailed annual insights into the structure and functioning of unincorporated non-agricultural enterprises.
This press note is for the first quarterly bulletin for the quarters January, 2025 - March, 2025 and April, 2025 - June, 2025. The quarterly bulletin is available on the website of the Ministry (https://mospi.gov.in).
A brief overview of the coverage, sampling methodology, and data collection mechanism of ASUSE 2025, the data from the first two quarters of which has been used in the preparation of this QBUSE, is provided in the Endnote.
Re-engineering of ASUSE sampling design:
Major changes in Sampling Design
Quarterly sample selection instead of annual selection
District as basic stratum instead of NSS Region (a group of districts)
About 1.5 times increase in annual sample size
In order to ensure generation of quarterly estimates from ASUSE retaining the core annual framework of the survey, the survey has been re-engineered for ASUSE 2025. The sampling design has been suitably modified to enable quarterly selection of sample units. Also, by making districts within a state as basic stratum, this new sampling strategy has provision for generation of district-level annual estimates by the states participating in the survey. This enhancement facilitates the generation of quarterly estimates from ASUSE 2025, in addition to the annual results. To support this transition, the overall sample size has been increased by about 1.5 times from the ASUSE conducted previously and the survey has been further fine-tuned to ensure the production of robust, reliable, and timely quarterly estimates.
Key highlights of the results for the quarters January - March 2025 and April-June 2025:
Expansion in Establishments:
The total number of establishments in the unincorporated non-agricultural sector rose to 7.94 crore[1] during April-June 2025, compared to 7.85 crore in the previous quarter. This growth was driven primarily by the trade (3.63%) and other services ( 3.13%) sectors, while the manufacturing sector contracted by 4.7% during the same period.
Workforce Trends:
Similar annual estimates from the latest ASUSE (Oct 23- Sept 24)
Estimated number of establishments 7.34 crores
Estimated number of workers 12.06 crores
Employment in the sector crossed the 13 crore mark for the first time in January-March 2025, reaching 13.13 crore-well above all previous ASUSE annual estimates, which had remained below 13 crore. It then eased to 12.86 crore in the April-June quarter. Employment estimates for the unincorporated sector in both the quarters show a substantial increase over the ASUSE 2023-24 annual estimate of just over 12 crore workers, indicating a marked rise in overall employment levels in this sector.
The fluctuation in employment estimates during April-June 2025 is mainly linked to reduction in the number of establishments engaging hired workers and a moderate performance of the unincorporated manufacturing sector in the quarter that witnessed the share of employment of the manufacturing sector falling by more than 2 percentage points in comparison to the previous quarter.
Changing Workforce Composition:
The share of working owners rose from 58.29% in January to March quarter to 60.18% in the subsequent quarter, suggesting a shift towards self-employment and entrepreneurial activities. The shift was particularly evident in manufacturing, where the share of hired workers saw the steepest decline, accompanied by the highest increase in working owners, signalling a strong move towards owner-driven enterprises.
The rural workforce increased from 5.97 crore to 6.25 crore during this period, indicating the rising role of unincorporated enterprises in rural economic activity.
Women's Participation:
Women accounted for over 28% of the workforce in both quarters, showcasing the sector's importance as a driver of gender-inclusive growth and entrepreneurship. This is slightly higher than the same observed in ASUSE 2023-24.
Digital Adoption:
Use of Internet:
34.20 % in the quarter January-March 2025
36.03 % in the quarter April-June 2025
26.7% during October 2023 to September 2024 (annual)
The April-June 2025 quarter witnessed a rise in the use of the internet to 36.03% from 34.20% in the previous quarter by unincorporated enterprises, reflecting the sector's gradual digital adoption. This shows that more and more establishments are leveraging online platforms for business operations and transactions highlighting growing digital integration among these enterprises.
Key indicators of QBUSE for the quarters January-March 2025 and April-June 2025 are given in the following table:
The rest of the document can be viewed at https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2163337
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
