Recent protests in Delhi have brought out the frustration of Indian youth over a dysfunctional educational system. While exam leaks, both for entrance to professional courses and specific job roles, were the main reason of protest, these were also a result of growing anxiety over the employment situation.
However, a simple reading of India’s employment statistics would suggest an improvement in recent years.
Overall employment by the internationally-comparable gauge of weekly status has increased substantially from 431 million in 2017-18 to 563 million in 2025, with an accompanying decline in unemployment rates.
It is a different matter that most of the increase in employment is driven by agriculture, female employment in particular.
None of this is a sign of improvement in India’s employment structure. A deeper analysis suggests it is distress that is driving more women to farm jobs.
Further, the overall employment increase in this sector shows a reversal of the structural transformation away from farms that takes place in any emerging economy.
In any case, the real measure of employment is not just the ability to get any work and earn a living.
In a society with a large vulnerable population, even though not poor by official standards, remaining jobless is a luxury few can afford. What should ideally be counted as employment is work that provides a decent level of earnings along with work conditions that would be seen as decent in any developed economy.
Most self or casual employment in India is without any security of tenure, social security or a decent living wage. But even regular employment characterized by job continuity can hardly be deemed decent employment without security of tenure, social security and a decent pay cheque.
That is precisely why India faces a unique phenomenon of a premium being placed on government jobs, which are widely seen as superior to private-sector jobs.
No such example exists in any developed country. Such is the situation that even the lowest-paid level of a government job invites applications from lakhs of applicants, including PhD holders.
India’s unemployment rate in the 18-25 age-group has fallen from 25% in 2017-18 to 17% in 2025 among rural youth and from 28% to 22% among urban youth. Still, almost one in five youth are actively seeking work but are unable to find it.
It’s also worrying that they are withdrawing from higher education—the proportion of students in this age group declined from 27% in 2017-18 to 25% in rural areas but was stable at 36% in urban areas. Whether the move away is a result of rising education costs or the futility of acquiring higher education is a matter of research.
But among those who are fortunate to land a job, only a fourth are in regular employment. Even in regular jobs that the young hold, their real earnings from such employment have been almost stagnant over the years.
The average earnings from regular employment in the 18-25 age-group have only grown by 0.85% per year between 2011-12 and 2025, as against India’s per capita income growth of more than 4% per year. But the data also points to a decline in returns from education, with real earnings growth declining steadily as one moves up the education ladder.
The primary-educated have seen real earnings increase by 2% per annum between 2011-12 and 2025, whereas these have declined for people who have finished higher-secondary studies or above.
Graduates fare worse, with their real income declining 1.1% per annum while those with higher secondary or diploma seeing a decline of 0.2%.
Unfortunately, even their regular jobs do not guarantee a secure future. In 70% of the cases, there are no written contracts and only 20% have a written deed of one year or more. Almost 60% are not eligible for paid leave or any social security benefit.
Clearly, the issue of unemployment is not just about getting a job. Declining unemployment rates do not capture the precariousness of even the best jobs available to the youth.
While the immediate trigger for youth protests may have been exam leaks, the anguish is no less about the system, which seems unfair to those who want higher education or seek better livelihoods. An examination system rejig is only a part of the reforms needed in education.
Euphoria over India being the world’s fastest-growing major economy has stoked aspirations among the youth who confront a different reality. Job creation is not enough. India needs jobs that guarantee a decent living wage, security of tenure and social protection.
The author is associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and visiting fellow at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi.