As per the recent International Labor Organization (ILO) report, the ratio of unemployed educated youth with at least secondary education has nearly doubled to 65.7% in 2022 from 35.2% in 2000.
While the male employment rate in India between 2005 and 2015 declined “very little”, the female employment rate declined by nearly five percent per year as the data represents.
India’s employment rate was 52 percent in 2015, below Nepal (81 percent), Maldives (66 percent), Bhutan (65 percent) and Bangladesh (60 percent) but above Pakistan (51 percent), Sri Lanka (49 percent) and Afghanistan (48 percent).
India’s young populatiopn under threat?
With the unemployment ratio getting nearly doubled in 22 years, India is at an alarming rate. The cause behind this surge is the major rise in population. India’s population surged dramatically as more people have entered the workforce but jobs have not been created at the same pace so the job growth doesn’t match with the population growth.
83% of the jobless workforce in India is under 34 years of age which means the “young population” is under this threat. This is worrying as India sees its Youth as an National Asset who is accountable to drive the Indian economy. Our Youth is a major selling point for the international businesses too they want to invest in India to cash in on the youth.
Youth dropout rates after secondary education remain high, particularly in economically backward regions and among marginalized groups. Despite rising enrollment in higher education, quality concerns persist, with significant learning deficits observed across educational platforms as per the released statement of Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on March 26.
The youth employment and underemployment increased between 2000 and 2019 but declined during the pandemic years as the economy of employment among the youth was still rising until the Covid-19 Pandemic struck the country. More than 50% of the India’s population is below the age of 25 years so in the coming 50 years more Indian’s will enter the job market.
Therefore they roughly constitute as 7-8 million job seekers in India which directly brings upon India to create jobs for them. But as per reports of ILO, the pace of Job creation has slowed down globally and global employment to expand by just 1% in 2023. The ILO has projected global employment to grow by 1.1% in 2024 which is a marginal growth.
According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the Unemployment rate in India, among persons aged 15 years and above, fell to 8.7% in December 2023 from 8.9% in the previous month. China is in a more worse position than India with approx. 12million fresher await jobs as their unemployment rate hits record high, so much as so China has stopped publishing its youth employment data.
South Asia re-emerged as the world’s fastest-growing economy with growth of 6.3% in the last quarter of 2017 and 7.2% in the first quarter of 2018. The regions growth is linked to India’s economic resurgence, post the resurgence, post the slow down due to demonetization and implementation of goods and services tax to 7.3% in 2018. And about 80% of South Asia’s gross domestic product is generated in India, the report said.
Challenge of Youth Employment faced in India
India right now is at a crucial juncture concerning youth employment as it holds the potential to harness its demographic advantage. With a significant count of them falling in the age bracket, India stands to benefit from the” demographic dividend”.
But this advantage is facing challenges as the youth population is projected to decrease to23% by 2036 who now constitute 27% of the total population as of 2021. The Covid pandamic further complicated the unemployment challenges in the youth labor market. Although there were some recovery post-lockdowns but it accompanied by an increase in poor quality work, particularly in self-employment and unpaid family work.
Significant variations in employment outcomes exist across states, with certain states continue to rank lower in employment indicators. States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh are struggling with poor employment outcomes over the years, reflecting the influence of regional policies.