Abstract
The manufacturing sector remains an important engine of growth in the country. Recent years have seen changes in the structure of employment within the manufacturing sector. The opportunities for employment in this sector were increasingly generated in the urban areas. There was a decline in the share of employment and value added in the large size units and growth of the medium and small sized units. The structure of employment in terms of the gender composition did not change much over the period with nearly one-third of the workers being women. The unorganised manufacturing industries engaged a larger share of family labour. The dynamic potential of the industries in unorganised manufacturing was categorised on the basis of the growth of value added with good quality employment. The recent years witnessed a number of industries growing with good quality employment. The top growth industries with good quality employment grew with a slightly declining share of women workers. The high-performing industries increased the flexibility of their workforce by engaging a higher share of part-time workers. This was particularly true of the smaller sized industries. The growth of industries with poor quality of employment also indicated a shift in part-time work. These changing trends in the structure of the unorganised manufacturing industry point to the increasing flexibility of the workforce by the firms as they try to reduce costs.