New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS): The total estimated employment in manufacturing industries showed a robust growth of 7.4 per cent in the fiscal 2022-23 over the previous year, according to the latest government data.

The employment rose to 1.84 crore in 2022-23 from 1.72 crore in 2021-22 — highest-ever increase in the sector in more than a decade, as per data by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

The top five states employing highest number of persons in this sector were Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Taken together, these states contributed about 55 per cent of total manufacturing employment in the year 2022-23.

The results of Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) from April 2022 to March 2023 showed that industrial output grew by more than 21 per cent over the previous year.

According to the findings, the Gross Value Added (GVA) grew by 7.3 per cent in current prices in the year 2022-23 over 2021-22.

“Increase in input was 24.4 per cent while output grew by 21.5 per cent in the sector in 2022-23 over 2021-22,” the survey showed.

FY23 witnessed a growth in this sector for majority of the important economic parameters like invested capital, input, output, GVA, employment and wages and even surpassed the pre-pandemic level in absolute value terms.

The main drivers of this growth in 2022-23 were industries like manufacturing of basic metal, coke and refined petroleum products, food products, chemical and chemical products and motor vehicles.

Taken together, these industries contributed about 58 per cent of the total output of the sector and showed output growth of 24.5 per cent and GVA growth of 2.6 per cent YoY.

“The estimated number of persons engaged in this sector in 2022-23 has exceeded the pre-pandemic level (that is 2018-19) by more than 22.14 lakh,” the ASI findings noted.

At the same time, average emoluments also registered an increase over previous year. Also, average emoluments per persons engaged in this sector had gone up by 6.3 per cent in 2022-23 in comparison to 2021-22.

In terms of GVA, Maharashtra ranked first in 2022-23, followed by Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.