Number Of Job Applications And Recruitments Declines Since 2014

A 2020 WEF Report Also Highlighted The Need For Skills Of The Future

In the last eight years, India only hired 0.3% of the applicants who applied for permanent government posts, underscoring the unemployment catastrophe afflicting the world's fastest-growing economy. 722,311 candidates out of 220 million applications it received since 2014 were hired by the government. Since 2014, the number of job applications as well as recruitments have declined. According to a Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) report that analysed the data between January & April 2022, the level of unemployment among graduates was 17.8%, compared to about 11% in 2017. Some States such as Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan & Bihar have not been able to provide jobs for more than a third of their graduates.

Youth Unemployment Rate

Over the years, the youth unemployment rate in India has been steadily aggravated due to the Covid-19 pandemic impact on recruitment drives. The pandemic seems to have exacerbated the situation: the number of unemployed graduates was 19.3% in 2021 (compared to 14.9% in 2019 and 15.1% in 2020). This increase may be explained by the disruption to economic activities during this time as many workers returned to their hometowns. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), which included all 22 states, the youth unemployment rate for the age group of 15 to 29 was 25.5% in the April to June quarter of 2021. Each state had a double-digit unemployment rate for young people in this age group. The overall unemployment rate in India increased from 9.3% to 12.6% in the June quarter of 2021–2022 as well. The employment crisis of graduates in India is a strange puzzle because India is a powerhouse when it comes to the available workforce. 50% of the country’s population is below the age of 25. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), just one in four management professionals, one in five engineers, and one in ten graduates are employable out of the 13 million people that enter the workforce in India each year.

Reason behind Youth Unemployment

One of the main reasons behind the high youth unemployment rate in India is that even today schools are training students from a young age in skills that have no use in the market in the future. At present, students need future-ready 21st-century skills. Thanks to a work market that is driven by technology and is undergoing rapid change, kids are training for positions that do not yet exist when they are in school. A 2020 WEF Report also highlighted the need for skills of the future, especially those that involve technology, such as machine learning, web development, programming, data science, big data, AI, etc. The National Education Policy (NEP), which was published in 2020, recommended that children begin receiving vocational training in Class 6 in order to address the skill gap. It envisions a process where students are trained in job-ready skills, go through internships & gain employment in the future. However, over the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic created a lot of obstacles to the implementation of the policy. Bridging the skill gap would take time & the government needs to join hands with the private sector to create employable citizens.

Growth in Jobs for Freshers

Freshmen appear to be in the most demand, as seen by the segment's biggest yearly growth. The growth in jobs for freshers was led by Retail (+109 per cent), Insurance (+101 per cent), Travel & Hospitality (+158 per cent), Accounting Finance (+95 per cent), Education (+70 per cent) & BFSI (+88 per cent). Entry-level hires were highest in Mumbai & Kochi. At least 90 million jobs need to be created by India by 2030, Millions of employees will transition from agricultural employment to better-paying occupations in other industries as a new generation enters the workforce, and the proportion of women working will rise. A McKinsey report stated that the country must achieve a GDP growth of 8–8.5% on average every year from 2023 to 2030, which sounds a bit ambitious given the extreme uncertainties & the economic slowdown posed by the pandemic. The nation must increase its annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth to create jobs for so many people.

Needs of Employment Possibilities

The government's job should be to facilitate the establishment of an appropriate policy environment in industries that generate significant employment, such as the apparel and food processing industries. Additionally, it is important to ensure that labour rules encourage widespread employment. India needs to offer a lot of employment possibilities in the service and manufacturing sectors as well as in small businesses due to its large human capital and various origins. This is essential for the economy's general health.