Purpose

Generating meaningful employment has become a major concern for countries across the globe to break the vicious circle of poverty. Employment creation becomes more intricate in a developing economy like India where the population is at an incessant rise, without a simultaneous increase in the employment generation. In the event of situations of mounting unemployment, micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) being largely labour-intensive have been claimed as a significant contributor in an economy’s development to induce employment generation. The study at hand is an attempt to gauge the overall contributions of MSMEs in employment creation in Assam, a developing region of the Indian sub-continent. However, most importantly, the purpose of this paper is to determine if men and women are differently employed in the sample MSMEs and if the pattern of employment creation is different across male and female-owned sample MSMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a uniquely large sample of 320 MSME entrepreneurs with an equal representation of 160 each from male and female entrepreneurs. Secondary data sources were also consulted. Study areas comprising Kamrup-Metropolitan and Kamrup-Rural, depicting both urban and rural Assam, respectively. The choice of activities undertaken by the entrepreneurs includes a wide variety of 12 activities pertaining to all the MSME entrepreneurs in general and certain gender-specific in particular. The two hypotheses (H01 and H02) formulated were tested using the Chi-square test and the Mann-Whitney U test. Furthermore, the growth rate of employment generation in Assam along with the growth rate of the number of MSMEs established and investment made by the MSMEs were computed.

Findings

The calculated growth rate of employment creation, capital investment and MSMEs established were found to be positive. Based on the results of the Chi-Square test and Cramer’s V test, this paper establishes a strong association between the MSMEs and the total employment generation by the sample entrepreneurs (H01). The primary data suggested that 320 MSMEs are Employing 2,766 people in the study area with an average of 8 people per unit. Employment in the service sector is higher than the manufacturing units with an average of 4 people per unit. Another vital finding of the study professed that the women-owned MSMEs have a relatively lesser number of people (32.2%) employed than their male counterparts (67.8%). The mean rank of male entrepreneurs is considerably higher (211.49) testifying a higher employment creation by the male-owned MSMEs than the women-owned (H02). Moreover, women (33.4%) are thinly employed than men (66.5%). Women entrepreneurs were seen to have mostly limited themselves in micro-units followed by small-units. In terms of the nature of employment, full-time employees (81.8%) supersede part-time employees (6.6%). The pattern of self-employment is equal (5.8%) across both male and women entrepreneurs. MSMEs have been well identified as an impeccable answer to mitigate the problem of mounting unemployment.

Originality/value

The novelty of the study lies in its meticulous and explicit understanding of the employment scenario in Assam by the MSMEs. Empirical works on employment creation by the MSMEs in Assam were fundamentally based on secondary data sources. The study fills in the gap by providing a holistic picture of employment creation based on both primary and secondary data, but prominently on the primary. The study accounts details about the nature of MSME employment, the gender of the MSME employees, employment creation by male and female MSME entrepreneurs, the growth rate of MSME employment and self-employment to name a few

中文翻译：

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中小微企业能否解决失业问题？来自阿萨姆邦的证据

目的

创造有意义的就业已成为全球各国打破贫困恶性循环的主要关切。在像印度这样的发展中经济体中，创造就业机会变得更加复杂，那里的人口不断增加，而创造的就业机会却没有同时增加。在失业率上升的情况下，主要是劳动密集型的微型中小型企业 (MSME) 被认为是促进创造就业的经济发展的重要贡献者。手头的研究试图衡量中小微企业对印度次大陆发展中地区阿萨姆邦创造就业的总体贡献。然而，最重要的是，

设计/方法/方法

该研究基于 320 名 MSME 企业家的独特大样本，其中男性和女性企业家各占 160 名。还咨询了二级数据来源。研究区域包括 Kamrup-Metropolitan 和 Kamrup-Rural，分别描绘了城市和农村阿萨姆邦。企业家选择的活动包括 12 项活动，这些活动通常与所有 MSME 企业家有关，尤其是某些特定性别的企业家。使用卡方检验和 Mann-Whitney U 检验对制定的两个假设（H01和H02）进行检验。此外，计算了阿萨姆邦创造就业的增长率以及建立的 MSME 数量和 MSME 投资的增长率。

发现

发现就业创造、资本投资和建立的中小微企业的计算增长率为正。基于卡方检验和克莱默 V 检验的结果，本文建立了中小微企业与样本企业家创造的总就业之间的强关联（H01）。初步数据表明，320 家中小微企业在研究区雇佣了 2,766 人，平均每个单位为 8 人。服务业就业率高于制造业单位，平均每单位4人。该研究的另一个重要发现表明，女性拥有的 MSME 的就业人数 (32.2%) 比男性同行 (67.8%) 少。男性企业家的平均排名要高得多 (211.49)，证明男性拥有的 MSME 创造的就业机会高于女性拥有的 ( H02）。此外，女性（33.4%）的就业率低于男性（66.5%）。人们认为女企业家大多将自己限制在微型单位，其次是小单位。从就业性质看，全职员工（81.8%）高于兼职员工（6.6%）。男性和女性企业家的自营职业模式相同（5.8%）。中小微企业已被公认为缓解失业率上升问题的完美解决方案。

原创性/价值

该研究的新颖之处在于它对中小微企业在阿萨姆邦的就业情况的细致和明确的理解。阿萨姆邦中小微企业创造就业的实证研究基本上是基于二手数据来源。该研究通过提供基于主要和次要数据（但主要基于主要数据）的就业创造的整体图来填补空白。该研究详细介绍了 MSME 就业的性质、MSME 雇员的性别、男性和女性 MSME 企业家创造的就业机会、MSME 就业和自营职业的增长率等