at and per cent, respectively, but the proportion of workforce that works in this sector is more in India. In Pakistan, about per cent of people work in agriculture whereas in India it is per cent. The sectoral share of output and employment also shows that in all the three economies, the industry and service sectors have less proportion of workforce but contribute more in terms of output. In China, Fig.
. Industry in India, China and Pakistan. (Not to scale) manufacturing and service sectors contribute the highest to GDP at and per cent, respectively whereas in India and Pakistan, it is the service sector which contributes the highest by more than per cent of GDP. In the normal course of development, countries first shift their employment and output from agriculture to manufacturing and then to services.
This is what is happening in China as can be seen from Table . . The proportion of workforce engaged in manufacturing in India and Pakistan were low at and per cent respectively. The contribution of industries to GDP is also just equal to or with a small difference in output from agriculture.
In India and Pakistan, the shift is taking place directly to the service sector. Thus, in both India and Pakistan, the service sector is emerging as a major player of development. It contributes more to GDP and, at the same time, emerges as a prospective employer. If we look at the proportion of workforce in the1980s, Pakistan was faster in shifting its workforce to service sector than India and China.
In the 1980s, India, China and Pakistan employed , and per cent of its workforce in the service sector respectively. In , it has reached the level of , and per cent, respectively. In the last two decades, the growth of agriculture sector, which employs the largest proportion of workforce in all the three countries, has declined. In the industrial sector, China has maintained a double-digit growth rate whereas for India and Pakistan growth rate TABLE .