Unemployment has been a chronic issue that India grapples with. The debate around job and job seekers has, once again, gained momentum after the India Employment Report 2024, compiled by both the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute for Human Development (IHD) surfaced recently.
The study finds that in 2022, India’s youth accounted for 83 per cent of the country’s total unemployed population. Among all jobless people, the percentage of educated youngsters increased from 54.2 per cent in 2000 to 65.7 per cent in 2022. Additionally, at present there are more women (76.7%) than men (62.2%) among the educated but unemployed youth.
While gender disparity in terms of employment does not appear astounding, the unemployment rate before and after Covid-19 has come as a shock.
The report states, “Youth unemployment rate doubled between 2000 and 2019 [which is before Covid-19], rising from 5.7% to 17.5%, but then dropped to 12.4% in 2022.”
Implications of Covid-19 on the job market created noticeable ripples. However, the pandemic gave people the much-needed push to think out of the box and develop something of their own to become self-employed instead of depending on jobs.
In a similar vein, the report, too, highlights that jobs in India have been substituted with being self-employed and casual employment from 2000 to 2022. At present, nearly 90 per cent of the workforce is involved in informal employment.
Unemployment hit 23.5% in April 2020, a sharp spike from 8.7% in March in 2020 and it significantly declined in the year 2021.
After Covid-19 when unemployment was at peak, people became self-dependent. However, this does not suggest that a country will sulk at providing jobs to its youth.
To overcome the problem, the report suggests five key elements that should be taken into consideration for making policies to secure the future of educated youth in India— Job creation should be enhanced; Quality of employment should be improved; inequalities in the labour market should be addressed adequately; skills and policies should be strengthened in the active labour market; and deficits should be bridged on labour market patterns and youth employment.
At a time when the country is about to experience general elections, such reports act as testimony to what the elected government has done in the past to secure the lives of the nation's youth.
The report has given the Opposition a reason to target the ruling government at the Centre and its failure to provide jobs to the educated class.
Political leaders— from Congress’s Jairam Ramesh to Siddaramaiah to Trinamool Congress’s Sagarika Ghosh took to platform X to share the report and target the government on the problem. However, none spoke on how to deal with the issue and think beyond the political divide to make Indians feel secure in their jobs.
Unemployment, thus, will be a major hurdle that the newly-elected government has to face after its formation in a few months.
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