Judged by the standards of the developing countries, the South Asian countries achieved fairly decent rates of economic growth over the pst two decades. Yet the «employment problem» remains serious in all of them. This insightful new study examines these past patterns of growth in employment in South Asia and their relationship to the process of economic growth. It reveals how modern sectors fail to generate employment and discusses the main reasons for this failure - rigidities in the organized labour market and inward orientation of industrialization strategies.