Chandigarh, Sep 11 (IANS): Agrarian state Punjab has emerged on top among states in employment generation by the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), according to a study released Thursday by apex industry association Assocham.

Punjab ranked on top with highest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 46 per cent in employment generation during the course of five year period of 2008-09 to 2012-13.

"Only three other states of Maharashtra (11.5 per cent), Bihar (3.7 per cent) and Odisha (1.8 per cent) have recorded a growth in employment generation by the CPSEs while rest of the major 20 states have seen a decline. Even nationally, the employment in CPSEs plummeted by about eight percent during the aforesaid period," according to a study titled Employment Scenario in CPSEs, conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

The study said that about 22,200 people were employed by CPSEs in Punjab as of 2008-09 which had increased to over 32,500 in 2012-13.

Nationally, about 1,533,500 people were employed by CPSEs which significantly came down to about 1,404,000 in 2012-13, the study pointed out.

Punjab had also registered an increase of about one percent in its share in total employment generated by CPSEs, highlighted the study prepared by the Economic Research Bureau (AERB) of Assocham.

"Maharashtra had the highest share of 12.5 percent in total employment generation by CPSEs as of 2012-13 which had increased from 10.3 percent as of 2008-09, followed by Jharkhand (11.3 per cent) and West Bengal (10.9 per cent)," the study said.

"CPSEs have made significant contribution towards employment generation in the organized sector as they accounted for 4.7 per cent share in total employment generated by public and private sector as of 2012-13," D.S. Rawat, national secretary general of Assocham, said while releasing the findings of the chamber's study.

With a share of just about 0.7 per cent, Punjab had attracted investments worth just about Rs.3,906 crore out of the total amount of Rs.5.5 lakh crore invested by the CPSEs during 2008-09 and 2012-13. Punjab remained slightly ahead of its immediate neighbour Haryana which, with a share of 0.6 percent, had attracted CPSEs' investments worth about Rs.3,186 crore during the same period.

Maharashtra alone claimed 20 percent investment share, followed by Andhra Pradesh (8.4 percent), Tamil Nadu (8.1 percent), Odisha (6.7 percent) and Uttar Pradesh (6.2 percent) amid top five states attracting high share in investments by CPSEs, the study said.

There were altogether 582 projects under implementation in the central sector as on June 2013. Out of these, 311 projects reported a time overrun.

The CPSEs managed smart growth in net profit, despite difficult years in the global and domestic economy, with overall net profit of all 229 CPSEs during 2012-13 at Rs 1.15 lakh crore compared to Rs.0.98 lakh crore during 2011-12, showing an increase of 17.36 percent.