ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to classify work opportunities, considering the spatial structure of India by using the statistical techniques of principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). District-level data of B-series economic tables of the 2011 Census of India are the main data sources used in the analyses. The results of the PCA were derived using 34 variables and records from 632 districts, pertaining to labour force status, industrial classification, and class of workers. These variables were reduced to four principal components by the PCA. Five regional types of work opportunities were classified using the CA according to scores assigned to the four principal components with high eigenvalues. The study indicated that the emergence of metropolitan regions is a key factor, which modified the spatial structure of India following the economic reforms during the 1990s. These findings support the hypothesis proposed by Okahashi (2015a, 2015b) that emphasises the function of the mega-region as a core region in the nation.
