According to a survey by the Labor Bureau, the January-March 2009 quarter saw employment figures in some sectors rise by 250,000, as against the earlier quarter same-sectors job losses to the tune of 500,000!

The survey found a 0.6 percent jump in employment in the 3,192 units studied, which comprised sectors such as automobiles, leather, textiles, gems and jewelry, metal and metal products, as well as info-tech and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) at 21 key industrial centers in India.

The survey report said: "Employment in selected sectors during the quarter January to March 2009 is estimated to have increased by about a quarter million to 15.72 million."

Specifically speaking about the different sectors observed, the report said that employment increased the maximum in the gems and jewellery sector by 3.08 percent; followed by textiles by 0.96 percent; IT-BPO 0.82 percent; handlooms 0.28 percent; and automobile sector 0.10 percent. The sectors that showed a fall in employment included leather with 2.76 percent fall; metals 0.56 percent; and transport 0.36 percent.

The figures explicitly indicate that, during the quarter, the increase in employment was higher for non-exporting units, as compared to the export-oriented units. Since October last year, exports have largely been in 'negative territory,' because of lack of orders from the overseas markets.