Rising Unemployment: Are We Missing The Wood For The Trees?

Government departments receive lakhs of applications for lowly ranked jobs (peons, helpers etc.) from postgraduates and PhDs. Our young prepare for job-based competitive exams till they become ‘old and ineligible’.

- Vikas Singh

Why do the highly educated seek low-level government jobs? The answer lies deep within our system.

Government jobs at the lower end of the pyramid pay multiple times more than similar roles and qualifications in the private sector. People are attracted to the long-term job security, better working hours, little or no stress and pensions. There are other ‘attractions’ too, namely weak and often no linkages to performance or productivity. Some others are allured to government jobs for opportunities to ‘make’ money. The government ‘working’ class are aristocrats.

Most economies celebrate this ‘problem’

People entering the workforce earn and spend, trigger demand and consumption. The virtuous cycle grows the economy.

Our working age population is growing at a faster rate than the overall population. A million enter the workforce every month. Less than a third acquire jobs. Jobs are scarce. The situation is alarming, equally dismal. A third of the unemployed are so disheartened that they ‘stop’ looking for jobs.

A high proportion of the ‘qualified & educated’ lack the skills for corporate jobs. The corporate sector employs less than 10 per cent of the employed. The unorganised sector pays less, provides neither job security nor benefits. The corporate sector pays well, the government and the PSUs even more so.

A Crux research highlights that the employment market is elitist (government ‘overpays’ its own) at one end of the band. As much as 90 per cent of the ‘employed’ at the other end are exploited. Less than 40 per cent of jobs pay ‘regular’ salaries. Two thirds of the self-employed and contract workers make less than Rs 10,000 per month, substantially lower than the per capita income.