Employment scenario in India grim, says ILO report…
The share of those with secondary or higher education among the unemployed youth in India has almost doubled from 35.2% in 2000 to 65.7% in 2022, according to the India Employment Report 2024 re- leased by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute of Human Development (IHD) here on Tuesday.
The report says that youngsters account for al- most 83% of the country’s unemployed workforce. Employment and underemployment of the youth increased between 2000 and 2019 but declined during the pandemic years, the study, released by Chief Economic Adviser V. Anan- tha Nageswaran, said, ad- ding that educated young- sters experienced much higher levels of unemploy- ment in the country during the period. The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unem- ployment Rate (UR) showed a long-term dete- rioration between 2000 and 2018, but witnessed an improvement after 2019, the study said.
It added that the improvement coincides with periods of economic distress. “This improvement needs to be interpreted cautiously as jobs generated in the slowdown period raise questions about the drivers of these changes,” the authors of the report said.
The report said India’s job story over the past two decades had seen some paradoxical improvements in labour market indicators, while the basic long-term feature of the employment situation in the country continued to be insufficient growth of the non-farm sec- tors and the ability of these sectors to absorb workers from agriculture.