The book examines three important issues: (a) whether employment structure in the cities is dominated by low productivity activities in the absence of rapid industrialisation of work force, (b) whether residual absorption of labour in the informal sector and the concomitant poverty in the urban areas can be explained in the framework of 'excess-supply-limited-demand paradigm' and (c) whether slum problem needs to be perceived mainly in terms of 'employment problem'. It provides conceptual framework for analysing these issues and examines the pattern of urbanisation particularly city growth in India, employment structure in the cities, impact of rural-urban population movement on the urban informal sector, inter-linkages between rural and urban poverty, incidence of slum population and shortage of basic amenities in various cities and the residual absorption of slum inhabitants in low productivity activities.