This paper uses Indian data produced by NSS and PLFS, from 2000 to 2019, to examine trends in employment, the labour force and the working age population. An analysis of these trends shows how an implosion in the quality of protected regular employment, rising unemployment, falling shares of casual labour and rising shares of persons of working age out of the labour force are connected. The overall dynamic of change taking place in the world of work in India is such that while the situation for those in employment on average may be characterised as improving, the employment prospects for the working age population as a whole are progressively getting worse.