The Jobs Conundrum

Jobs are on the rise in india, but high-quality and well-paying jobs are needed as India propels into the next stage of growth

- VIDYA S.

India, which surpassed China to become the most populous nation in the world last April, recently received some wonderful news. The country, which currently has a population of 1.4 billion but has struggled with unemployment for a long time, saw its unemployment rate decline to 3.2%, the lowest level in at least five years, per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2022-23. Additionally, both the labour force participation rate and worker-population ratio have increased.

More recent PLFS data for the July-September 2023 quarter also showed a similar picture with the unemployment rate in urban areas stagnant at 6.6% from a high of 12.6% in April-June 2022.

“India does not have a jobs problem, but a wages problem,” says Manish Sabharwal, Co-founder & Vice Chairman of TeamLease Services, a leading staffing services provider. “The government must have a strategy to ensure at least 2.5-3 million high-quality jobs annually that pay more than `50,000 per month are created,” adds Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Aarin Capital and former Infosys CFO, in agreement.