A NATION STUCK BETWEEN MISSING JOBS AND GROWTH AMBITIONS

India grapples with a job crisis fuelled by factors including high youth unemployment, educational and skill imbalance and low female participation, among others. In their book, The Elephant Moves: India’s New Place in the World, Amitabh Kant and Amit Kapoor explore India’s economic evolution through the lens of competitiveness, stressing the need for, and challenges to, policy changes in its run to becoming a developed economy by 2047

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India is confronted with a significant challenge in generating productive jobs, despite having one of the largest potential workforces globally, with over 660 million people aged between eighteen and thirty-five. Alarming statistics reveal that the country’s unemployment rate stands at around 7 per cent, a concerning figure given the sheer size of the workforce. Furthermore, the quality of jobs in India raises concerns, as most of the population is engaged in low-value-added and low-paying employment. The State of Inequality in India Report 2022 points out that an individual earning over ₹25,000 per month belongs to the top 10 per cent of earners in the country, emphasizing the dearth of well-compensated positions.

Female labour force participation remains strikingly low at just 23 per cent, significantly below the global average of 47.4 per cent, presenting a substantial hurdle to India’s economic development due to cultural and societal constraints. The country’s youth unemployment rate is notably high at 23.2 per cent, reflecting deficiencies in the education and training systems that fail to equip the youth with the necessary skills for the job market.