The composition of employment (self-employment, regular salaried employment and casual employment) has been changing. While self-employment is on the decline, casual employment is on the rise. The share of self-employment in the rural workforce declined from 63 per cent in 1977-78 to 56 per cent in 1999-2000, while the proportion of casual labour has increase from 30 per cent to 37 per cent. During the same period regular employment has declinded marginally from 7.7 per cent to 6.7 per cent.