Over 40% Indian graduates under 25 years remain unemployed: Report
- Apart from this, the report --published by Azim Premji University -- even mentions that the connection between growth and good jobs remains weak.
Amid the speedy economic growth of India, the unemployment rate among graduates under 25 years of age touched a huge 42 percent post-Covid, compared to higher secondary (21.4 percent), secondary (18.1 percent), middle (15 percent) and others, according to a report published by Azim Premji University.
"Post-Covid the unemployment rate is lower than it was pre-Covid, for all education levels. But it remains above 15% for graduates and more worryingly it touches a huge 42% for graduates under 25 years," the report -- STATE OF WORKING INDIA 2023: Social Identities and Labour Market Outcomes -- released by Azim Premji University.
The report mentioned that since 1990s year-on-year non-farm GDP growth and non-farm employment growth were uncorrelated with each other. However, the conception of job creation changed between 2004 and 2019 as it was interrupted by the pandemic which caused larger growth in distress employment.
The unemployment rate falls from over 40 percent for educated youth under 25 years of age to less than 5 percent for graduates who are 35 years and above, indicating that eventually graduates do find jobs. However, the key questions are, what is the nature of jobs they find and do these match their skills and aspirations?
On the issue of female employment, the report states that it rose since 2019 due to a distress-led increase in self-employment. Before Covid, 50% of women were self-employed, but post Covid this rose to 60%. "Even two years after the 2020 lockdown, self-employment earnings were only 85% of what they were in the April-June 2019 quarter," the report said.
Looking at a similar point of view, the report mentioned gender norms continue to be significant for women’s employment. It said that compared to households with no mother-in-law present, married women living in households where the mother-in-law is present but not employed are 20% (rural) to 30% (urban) less likely to be employed. While, if the mother-in-law is employed herself, daughters-in-law are 50% (rural) to 70% (urban) more likely to be employed.
Caste-based segregation
On this issue, the report stated that Scheduled Caste workers declined rapidly over time in waste-related work and leather-related work, though it has not been eliminated as of 2021-22.
"In the leather industry, the representation index declined sharply to 1.4 in 2021. In waste management and sewerage, over-representation of SCs decreased to 1.6 times in 2011 before increasing slightly again," the report said.
Also, the report mentioned that lower-caste entrepreneurs are still rare. The report found that even in the smallest firm sizes, SC and ST owners are under-represented compared to their share in the overall workforce. However, SC and ST owners are barely represented among firms employing more than 20 workers.
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Business NewsEconomyOver 40% Indian graduates under 25 years remain unemployed: Report
First Published:20 Sep 2023, 06:05 PM IST
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