Indian youths struggle to get a job and that’s the reality. Even if they are seen working in some companies, their work standards are of poor quality. Millions of students study in different colleges with intentions to get a good job. But the reality is that there are a majority of degree holders when compared to the ones who are doing decent jobs in India.
But this is nothing new as the problem has been there for a long time. Not a long ago, the nation witnessed a growing trend where overqualified candidates have been applying for posts of ‘peons’ and ‘constables’ which depict a complete message of the current unemployment situation in India.
According to a recent United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR), 77.5% of country’s sum of employed ones are under ‘vulnerable employment’, which is comparatively higher than the global average- 42.5%. Though the numbers remain standstill for the last two years, it is still higher when compared to vulnerable employment rates of neighbouring countries like China (33%), Pakistan (59.7%), Bangladesh (57.5%) and Sri Lanka (40.1%) respectively.
The rates of vulnerable employment have been increasing gradually in India. This problem has also been mentioned in the World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2018 report which was published earlier in January. It estimated that out of the 535 million labour workforce in India in 2019, around 398.6 million would have jobs of poor quality. The report also predicted that vulnerable employment effects roughly three out of four workers, as reported by Business Today. It also went on to estimate that the unemployment rate in India will still continue to stay at 3.5% in 2018.
The United Nations describes the term ‘Vulnerable Employment’ as the “Sum of the employment status groups of own-account workers and contributing family workers.” It further defines that such people are “less likely to have formal work arrangements, and are therefore more likely to lack decent working conditions, adequate social security and ‘voice’ through effective representation by trade unions and similar organizations.”
Insufficient earnings, low productivity and extremely difficult conditions of work standards which lessens the effectiveness of the workers’ fundamental rights quite often are the factors of vulnerable employment wherein self-employment and who works at family-run start-up are at risk of falling into this bracket.
The report added that there have been plenty of job opportunities in some ICT-intensive services in India, a large portion of the jobs created in the service sector over the last 2 decades has been in conventional low value-added services jobs. This is where the factors of informality and vulnerable forms of employment rises.
It has also been learnt that informality in the labour workforce affects around 90% of workers in India. The high rate of people employed in the agricultural sector only play a limited role only. Vulnerable employment is also widespread in the manufacturing sector where workers spend working for long hours with only fewer benefits.
According to a report, the unemployment rate in India is expected to stay at 3.5% for the current year and the unemployment rate among youth (15-24 age group) with 28% of the population is predicted to rise from 10% in 2014 to 10.7% in 2019.
According to a report in February, released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), an independent creative team that closely monitors and tracks business and economic data, around 31 million people in India were desperately searching for jobs then. As per the report, since July 2017, the unemployment rate has been rising gradually and there is job Crisis in India.
During his campaigning for the 2014 general elections, PM Narendra Modi had promised that if elected, their government would step up and create as many as 10 million new jobs every year, according to The Logical Indian. However, the Economic Survey of 2016-17 depicted the increase in the unemployment rate in the nation from 4.9% in 2013-14 to 5%, with a steady decline of about 20,000 jobs by 2016.
As per the report by Quartz India, there are around 17 million people in India coming into the workforce every year, but sadly only 5.5 million jobs are being created for them. This goes to show the current employment situation.
It is cognisance of the fact that the recruitments to government jobs are done through civil services exams like UPSC and the Staff Selection Commission (SSC). However, the unemployment condition seems to have gone from bad to worse already with delays. For instance, conducting the SSC CGL exam this year but with no clarification or new dates announced even a month later.
Former PM and renowned economist Dr Manmohan Singh blasted the government’s approach to the unemployment condition in the country. The opposition parties continue to highlight the issue ahead of the 2019 general elections.
