This paper presents a new dataset of comparable employment indicators for South Asian countries, constructed from more than 60 primary data sources from 2001 to 2017. The main contribution of the paper is to curate the information provided by individual respondents to censuses and surveys, in a way that is consistent across countries and over time. The usefulness of the dataset is illustrated by conducting a rigorous assessment of employment characteristics, of changes in employment over time, and of the short- and long-run relationship between economic growth and employment growth in South Asia. The exercise shows that agriculture still employs the majority of the working-age population across the region and, except in Sri Lanka, more than half of the employment is self-employment or unpaid family work. The paper also shows that employment rates are generally decreasing in South Asia, and that in some countries female employment rates are falling rapidly. Seasonal growth patterns are shown to affect the composition of employment, while non-seasonal changes in short-run growth affect the overall level of employment. The paper estimates that, in the long run, one percentage point growth of gross domestic product has led on average to a 0.34 percent increase in employment.

中文翻译：

---

南亚的就业：一个新的数据集

本文介绍了一个新的南亚国家可比就业指标数据集，该数据集由 2001 年至 2017 年的 60 多个主要数据源构建。本文的主要贡献是整理个人受访者提供的人口普查和调查信息，以在不同国家和时间段内保持一致的方式。通过对就业特征、就业随时间的变化以及南亚经济增长与就业增长之间的短期和长期关系进行严格评估，说明了该数据集的有用性。研究表明，该地区大部分适龄劳动人口仍以农业为业，除斯里兰卡外，一半以上的就业是自营职业或无偿家庭工作。该论文还表明，南亚的就业率普遍下降，一些国家的女性就业率正在迅速下降。季节性增长模式会影响就业构成，而短期增长的非季节性变化会影响整体就业水平。该论文估计，从长远来看，国内生产总值增长 1 个百分点平均会导致就业增长 0.34%。