Publication: An Overview of the Indian Health Labor Markets
Loading...
Published
2025-06-30
ISSN
Date
2025-09-30
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report presents a comprehensive analysis of India’s health labor markets using data from the Periodic Labor Force Survey, the country’s largest labor dataset. It updates estimates of the size, composition, and characteristics of the active health workforce and examines employment dynamics in the sector, including estimates of labor supply elasticities, job quality, and projections of workforce needs and demand. India’s health workforce comprises about 5 million active workers when considering only core occupations. Although workforce density remains below global, regional, and structural benchmarks, efforts to scale up training capacity have led to a 60 percent increase in the number of health workers since 2017. Despite this progress, persistent shortages remain in key medical specialties, and informality is still widespread, both in employment arrangements and training requirements. The workforce also remains concentrated in urban areas, although rural representation has improved, particularly among associate nurses and midwives. The health sector plays a vital role in providing quality employment, especially for women, accounting for 1.3 percent of the total workforce and 2 percent of female employment in the country. Medical training increases female labor force participation by 24.6 percentage points. However, challenges persist: a 30 percent gender pay gap and the disproportionate burden of household responsibilities continue to limit women’s participation, over one-third of women with undergraduate-level medical training are outside the labor force. Labor supply elasticity estimates suggest that wage increases alone do not significantly increase the working hours of health workers. This underscores the importance of compensation structure and non-pecuniary benefits, such as training opportunities, career advancement, housing, and access to childcare, healthcare, and maternity benefits, especially for female workers. While projections indicate India may need up to 10 million additional health workers by 2035 (depending on the benchmark), current trends suggest the supply-demand gap is gradually narrowing, largely due to major healthcare reforms. As India expands health coverage and mobilizes resources to fund healthcare services, more healthcare jobs will be needed to support progress toward universal health coverage.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Araujo, Edson C.; Coelho, Bernardo D. P.; Sahadewo, Gumilang Aryo; Manchanda, Navneet Kaur; McPake, Barbara; Mahal, Ajay; Sripada, Lakshmi Murthy; Santhanakrishnan, Deepak; Bhatnagar, Aarushi. 2025. An Overview of the Indian Health Labor Markets. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43787 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Universal Health Coverage for Inclusive and Sustainable Development : A Synthesis of 11 Country Case Studies(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-06-25)The goals of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) are to ensure that all people can access quality health services, to safeguard all people from public health risks, and to protect all people from impoverishment due to illness, whether from out-of-pocket payments for health care or loss of income when a household member falls sick. Countries as diverse as Brazil, France, Japan, Thailand, and Turkey that have achieved UHC are showing how these programs can serve as vital mechanisms for improving the health and welfare of their citizens, and lay the foundation for economic growth and competitiveness grounded in the principles of equity and sustainability. Ensuring universal access to affordable, quality health services will be an important contribution to ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity in low income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where most of the world s poor live.Publication Toward Synergy and Collaboration to Expand the Supply of and Strengthen Primary Health Care in Nigeria’s Federal Context, with Special Reference to Ondo State(World Bank, Washington DC, 2013-01)This study examines an innovative example of the expansion of supply and the strengthening of primary health care to improve key health-related Millennium Development Goal, or MDG indicators through synergy and collaboration between the federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and state governments in an extreme federal context, and with particular reference to Ondo State. That is, the Nigerian Federal Constitution grants the federal government only very limited and indirect influence or control over the fiscal and financial affairs of state and local governments, such that 'plans, budgets, accounts and procurements are not subject to federal control and scrutiny'. Nor must the lower tiers account to the federal level for how funds transferred to them from the central level are used. The rest of case study is organized as follows. Section two describes the design of the HCP, including its interaction with the rest of the health system; section three discusses the targeting, identification, and enrolment system; section four examines the management of public funds within the HCP; section five analyses the management of the benefits package; section six reviews the information environment and monitoring systems of the HCP; section seven summarizes and analyses the evidence on the key theme of the study, which is the extent to which the HCP is expanding access to, and strengthening, primary health care within the federal system; and section eight looks at the pending agenda for action, drawing on the lessons learned and challenges for the HCP's future. The annexes present the country and health system context; a general overview of health system financing and delivery; a brief description of primary care and key supply-side efforts; and key data on Ondo State, including a description of the state's health system.Publication How to Recruit and Retain Health Workers in Rural and Remote Areas in Developing Countries : A Guidance Note(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-06)Worldwide the geographical distribution of health workers is skewed towards urban and wealthier areas. This pattern is found in nearly every country in the world, regardless of the level of economic development and health system organization, but the problem is especially acute in developing countries. The geographical imbalances in the health workforce further exacerbate inequities in the health sector, as the services are not available where needs are higher and impact greater. A variety of interventions have been applied in different contexts and for different types of health workers to address this problem. There is an emerging consensus that policies for recruitment and retention in rural and remote areas need to address two critical issues: i) to be effective, interventions need to be implemented in bundles, combining different packages of interventions according to the variety of factors influencing the health worker's decision to work in rural or remote areas; and ii) to match the interventions with health worker's preferences and expectations, since the health worker's employment decisions are a function of these preferences. In order to respond to these requirements, this paper proposes the application of Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs) to allow for measurement of health workers' preferences and quantitatively predicts the job uptake given a set of job characteristics. This paper has a two-fold objective: a) to give the reader an overview of the magnitude of unequal health workforce distribution in the developing countries, provide a summary of the evidence to date on the factors that contribute to these imbalances, and present a systematic set of policy interventions that are being implemented around the world to address the problem of recruitment and retention of health workers in rural and remote regions of the developing countries; and b) to introduce the reader to the potential application of the DCE to elicit health workers' preferences and determine the factors likely to increase their probability of taking up a rural or remote job.Publication Contracting for Primary Health Care in Brazil : The Cases of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09)This study presents two case studies, each on a current initiative of contracting for primary health services in Brazil, one for the state of Bahia, the other for the city of Rio de Janeiro. The two initiatives are not linked and their implementation has independently sprung from a search for more effective ways of delivering public primary health care. The two models differ considerably in context, needs, modalities, and outcomes. This paper identifies their strengths and weaknesses, initially by providing a background to universal primary health care in Brazil, paying particular attention to the family health strategy, the driver of the basic health care model. It then outlines the history of contracting for health care within Brazil, before analyzing the two studies. The state of Bahia sought to expand coverage of the family health strategy and increase the quality of services, but had difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified health professionals. Rigidities in the process of public hiring led to a number of isolated contracting initiatives at the municipal level and diverse, often unstable employment contracts. The state and municipalities decided to centralize the hiring of health professionals in order to offer stable positions with career plans and mobility within the state, and chose to create a state foundation, acting under private law to manage and oversee this process. Results have been mixed as lower than expected municipal involvement resulted in relatively high administrative costs and consequent default on municipal financial contributions. The state foundation is undergoing a governance reform and has now diversified beyond hiring for primary care. The municipality of Rio de Janeiro, which until recently relied on an expansive hospital network for health care delivery, sought in particular to expand primary health services. The public health networks suffered from inefficiency and poor quality, and it was therefore decided to contract privately owned and managed, not-for-profit, social organizations to provide primary care services. The move has succeeded in attracting considerable increases in funding for primary health and coverage has increased significantly. Performance initiatives, however, still need fine-tuning and reliable information systems must be implanted in order to evaluate the system.Publication The Economics of Health Professional Education and Careers(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015-09-03)The formation of health professionals is critical for the health system to function and achieve its universal health coverage (UHC) goals. This is well recognized by the majority of governments that plan for the training and regulations necessary to ensure quality. But the importance of market forces is often overlooked, resulting in interventions and regulations that often fail to achieve their intended effects. The Economics of Health Professional Education and Careers aims to inform the design of health professionals’ education policies to better manage health labor market forces toward UHC. It documents what is known about the influence of market forces on the health professional formation process. The contexts of the market for health professional training have been subject to important changes in recent decades, in particular: the growing extent of employment of mid-level cadres of health professionals; changes in technology and the associated growth of high-skilled occupations; the increasing interconnectedness of national health systems through globalization, with its implications for international health professional mobility; and the greater complexity of the public-private mix in employment options. There is a need to ensure that market forces align with the intentions of planning and regulation and the UHC goals. This study provides recommendations to support the design of policies that help to achieve these goals.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication International Financial Reporting Standards : A Practical Guide, 5th Edition(World Bank, 2009)The publication of this fifth edition coincides with the convergence in accounting standards that has been a feature of the international landscape since the global financial crisis of 1998. The events of that year prompted several international organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to launch a cooperative initiative to strengthen the global financial architecture and to seek a longer-term solution to the lack of transparency in financial information. A conscious decision has been made to focus on the needs of executives and financial analysts in the private and public sectors who might not have a strong accounting background. This publication summarizes each standard so managers and analysts can quickly obtain a broad overview of the key issues. Detailed discussion of certain topics has been excluded to maintain the overall objective of providing a useful tool to managers and financial analysts. In addition to the short summaries, most chapters contain basic examples that emphasize the practical application of some key concepts in a particular standard. This text provides the tools to enable an executive without a technical accounting background to: (1) participate in an informed manner in discussions relating to the appropriateness or application of a particular standard in a given situation, and (2) evaluate the effect that the application of the principles of a given standard will have on the financial results and position of a division or of an entire enterprise.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10)The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.Publication Social Protection and Jobs Responses to COVID-19(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-02-07)As of January 2022, a total of 3,856 social protection and labor measures were planned or implemented by 223 economies. This constitutes a net increase of 523 measures, or 15.6 percent since the last update in May 2021. While noteworthy, such increase is the lowest among net additions observed over previous semesters. In fact, the global pace of measures’ introduction over January 2020-January 2022 has been slowing down. This report focuses on the real-time review of country measures in terms of social protection and job responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19).Publication Commodity Markets Outlook, October 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-29)Commodity prices are expected to decline by about 7 percent overall this year, reflecting subdued global economic activity, elevated trade tensions and policy uncertainty, ample global supply of oil, and weather-related supply shocks. In 2026, commodity prices are forecast to fall by a further 7 percent, a fourth consecutive year of decline, as global growth remains sluggish and the oil market oversupplied. Energy price movements are envisaged to continue contributing to global disinflation in 2026. Metals and minerals prices are expected to remain stable in 2026, while agricultural prices are projected to edge down, primarily due to strong supply conditions. Precious metals prices are expected to rise another 5 percent, after a historically large, investment-driven rally of about 40 percent in 2025. Risks to the commodity price projections are tilted to the downside. Key downside risks include weaker-than-expected global growth, a longer-than-assumed period of economic policy uncertainty, and additional oversupply of oil. Upside risks include intensifying geopolitical tensions, the market impact of additional oil sanctions, supply reductions stemming from additional trade restrictions, unfavorable weather conditions, faster-than-expected rollout of new data centers. Commodity price volatility in recent years has revived interest in supply management via international commodity agreements. Historical experience, however, shows that the most effective policy is to promote diversification, innovation, transparency, and market-based pricing—measures that build lasting resilience to commodity price volatility.Publication Mining Royalties : A Global Study of Their Impact on Investors, Government, and Civil Society(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)Mineral sector regulatory and fiscal systems have been undergoing major reforms across the globe. This book focuses on information and analysis relating to mineral royalties. It provides a general discussion of the concepts behind mining taxation, a guide to royalties, examples of royalty calculations and the ways in which these interact with other forms of taxation, as well as financial effects on investments under varying conditions. Primary information includes royalty legislation from over forty nations. The book discusses implications for investors and governments of various tax regimes and provides specific country case examples. A chapter is included on transparency, governance, and management of revenue streams. The appendices, in the second volume, contain brief summaries and selected statutes relating to royalties in a broad cross-section of nations around the world; sample spreadsheets of the results of mine models that were analyzed; and examples of administrative and distributional approaches to collecting royalties.