India's young are more educated than ever. So why are so many jobless?

## Summary
So why are so many jobless? 1 hour ago Share Save Soutik Biswas India correspondent Share Save Hindustan Times via Getty Images A young man participates in an opposition protest against joblessness in the Indian capital, Delhi, in 2019 India's youth story is a study in contradictions - of abundance and scarcity, promise and drift. In the two years after the pandemic, India added 83 million jobs, lifting total employment from 490 million to 572 million, with gains for both men and women, the report finds. NurPhoto via Getty Images Most new jobs for women are in self-employment and unpaid or home-based work Many economists say India's growth model helps explain the bind. Artificial intelligence could reshape entry-level white-collar work, adding fresh uncertainty to India's already fragile school-to-jobs pipeline. "The extent to which this large, increasingly educated and aspirational cohort is productively absorbed into the labour market will determine whether this massive and continuing demographic dividend translates into an economic dividend," the report says.

## Article Content
India's young are more educated than ever. So why are so many jobless?
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Soutik Biswas
India correspondent
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Hindustan Times via Getty Images
A young man participates in an opposition protest against joblessness in the Indian capital, Delhi, in 2019
India's youth story is a study in contradictions - of abundance and scarcity, promise and drift.
As the British economist Joan Robinson once quipped, whatever "you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true".
Few studies illustrate that paradox more crisply than the latest State of Working India
report
by Azim Premji University.
Start with the headline number: 367 million young people between the ages of 15 and 29 - the largest youth population in the world, and making up a third of India's working-age population.
It is an enviable demographic bulge, the kind that powered East Asia's economic miracles. Yet, beneath this statistical bounty lies more troubling arithmetic.
Of these, roughly 263 million are outside the education system and constitute the potential young workforce. India, in other words, is rich in youth but poor in jobs.
There is, at first glance, reason for optimism.
Over four decades, the country has transformed its educational landscape, the report finds.
Enrolment in high school and colleges has surged, broadly keeping pace with India's development levels. Gender gaps have narrowed. Caste barriers, though far from erased, have reduced.
Hindustan Times via Getty Image
Aspirants at a 'job fair' organised by the opposition Congress party in Delhi last year
Between 2007 and 2017, the share of students from the poorest households enrolled in higher education rose from 8% to 17%.
A far more educated and connected generation is entering the labour market. Young workers are moving out of agriculture faster than older cohorts over the long term, finding opportunities in manufacturing and services.
On paper, this looks like the making of a classic demographic dividend.
"Never before have so many young Indians been as educated and as connected," the report says.
The bad news: the transition from education to employment remains stubbornly broken.
Graduate unemployment in an increasingly challenging labour market is strikingly high. The last half decade has not generated salaried jobs in adequate numbers, the report finds.
Nearly 40% of graduates aged 15-25 - and 20% of those aged 25-29 - are jobless, far higher than among the less educated, the report finds. Only a small share secure stable, salaried jobs within a year.
Part of this reflects how labour markets evolve over a life cycle. As Rosa Abraham, economist and lead author of the report, told me: "When you're young, you wait - and report unemployment."
Track the same cohort over time and joblessness falls; by their late 20s, many are working, says Abraham.
Early joblessness, she argues, reflects an "aspiration-availability mismatch" combined with the ability to wait. Over time, "you mellow, build networks and take what you can", often in the private sector.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Women working in a leather factory in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata
This is not a new problem.
In 1969, British economist Mark Blaug published a book called The Causes of Graduate Unemployment in India, tracing a gap between education and jobs that had been evident since the 1950s. And between 1983 and 2023, graduate unemployment remained stubbornly high at around 35-40%.
What has changed is the scale. India now produces about five million graduates a year - but since 2004-05, barely 2.8 million annually have found jobs, with even fewer securing salaried work.
The broader labour market tells a similarly mixed story.
In the two years after the pandemic, India added 83 million jobs, lifting total employment from 490 million to 572 million, with gains for both men and women, the report finds.
Yet nearly half were in agriculture - dominated by women and typically marked by low productivity and disguised unemployment.
In other words, the economy has been creating work, but not the kind that transforms livelihoods.
Women's employment is rising - but here, too, the picture is split.
At one end, a small but growing cohort of educated and skilled women is entering salaried roles in IT, automobile manufacturing and business services. The shift is especially pronounced in states such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, says Abraham.
At the other, far larger end, most of the increase is in self-employment and unpaid or home-based work, often within households or family enterprises. This signals necessity rather than opportunity.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Young job aspirants at a recruitment drive by the Indian army in Kashmir
The result is a statistical rise in participation that masks a qualitative divide: opportunity at the top, compulsion at the bottom.
Education has expanded rapidly - especially higher education, driven largely by private providers - but not without trade-offs.
The number of col

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- But this advantage is peaking, the report warns.

### Areas for Consideration
- NurPhoto via Getty Images Women working in a leather factory in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata This is not a new problem.
- In 1969, British economist Mark Blaug published a book called The Causes of Graduate Unemployment in India, tracing a gap between education and jobs that had been evident since the 1950s.
- The challenge, then, is not simply to create jobs, but to create the right kind of jobs- at scale and at speed.

### Implications
- As Rosa Abraham, economist and lead author of the report, told me: "When you're young, you wait - and report unemployment." Track the same cohort over time and joblessness falls; by their late 20s, many are working, says Abraham.
- NurPhoto via Getty Images Young job aspirants at a recruitment drive by the Indian army in Kashmir The result is a statistical rise in participation that masks a qualitative divide: opportunity at the top, compulsion at the bottom.
- The result is a lopsided labour market: opportunities for the educated, but too few pathways for everyone else.
- From around 2030, the share of working-age Indians will begin to decline as the population ages, closing the window that has long underpinned hopes of a demographic dividend.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers india, report, jobs topics. Notable strengths include discussion of india. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1349.