Amidst the speedy economic growth and falling unemployment rate in India, a new statistic has emerged which says that in spite of the falling unemployment rate post-covid, a massive 42% of graduates under the age of 25 still have not found a job compared to those with higher educational levels for the same age group.
“Post-Covid the unemployment rate is lower than it was pre-Covid, for all education levels. But it remains above 15% for graduates and more worryingly it touches a huge 42% for graduates under 25 years,” said the report, ‘STATE OF WORKING INDIA 2023: Social Identities and Labour Market Outcomes’ which is released by the Centre for Sustainable Employment of Azim Premji University.
According to the report, while the gender pay party has reduced over time, it is still significantly higher than the disparity between different castes and religions. This disparity is the highest amongst self-employed individuals and SC/ST women employees. The report also says that upward mobility has increased, and caste-based segregation and gender disparity has reduced across labour markets.
The report has also stated the number of SC/ST workers in the waste-cleaning industry or the leather industry has reduced while not being eliminated completely as of the year 2021-22. “In the leather industry, the representation index declined sharply to 1.4 in 2021. In waste management and sewerage, over-representation of SCs decreased to 1.6 times in 2011 before increasing slightly again,” the report said.
The report has utilised a variety of data sources, including surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), such as Employment-Unemployment Surveys and Periodic Labour Force Surveys, as well as the India Working Survey which is a collaborative effort between researchers from Azim Premji University, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and University of Western Australia.