The occupational structure, which refers to the distribution of population working in different sectors, showed no variation throughout the British rule.
The following arc the salient features of India's pre-independence occupational structure.

1. Predominance of Agriculture: Under the colonial rule, India was basically an agrarian economy, with nearly 70.75% of its workforce engaged directly or indirectly in agriculture. Due to massive poverty and widespread illiteracy during the colonial rule, a large proportion of the population was engaged in farming and related activities to earn their subsistence. But agricultural sector suffered from low productivity and, thereby, its growth was highly constrained despite employing a significant proportion of the population.
2. Lack of Opportunities in Industry: Only a small proportion of population was employed in manufacturing sector. Nearly 10% of the total workforce was engaged in manufacturing and industrial sector. This was due to the stiff competition that the Indian industries faced from the machine made cheap goods from Britain, Further, the lack of investment initiatives and the unfavourable tariff structure constrained industrial sector. Thus, the Indian industrial sector failed to provide significant employment opportunities.
3. Unequal Distribution among Sectors: The three sectors of Indian Economy, i.e., agricultural, industrial and service sector were unequal in terms of occupational structure. While the agricultural sector employed majority of the workforce, the other two sectors were not contributing much to employment with 10% of the workforce in industries and 15-20% in service sector.
4. Regional Imbalance: There was regional variation in the occupational structure of India. While on the one hand, the then Madras Presidency (comprising of present day States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka), Bombay and Bengal experienced a fall in the agricultural work force and increase in occupational share of manufacturing and services, on the other hand states like Odisha, Rajasthan and Punjab experienced a rise in the agricultural workforce.