Indian Unemployment Steady, But Youth Suffers

After two spikes in unemployment in the country due to Covid-19 outbreaks and lockdowns in the past years, the Indian unemployment rate has remained more or less steady in 2022 and 2023, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. In the third week of March, it stood at 7.3 percent.

However, the youth unemployment rate is shockingly high in India. Among those 15 to 19 years old who are looking to participate in the labor market, more than half were unemployed at the end of 2022. The rate was just a little lower for 20 to 24-year-olds. Almost 13 percent of 25 to 29 year-olds were jobless in the country at the end of last year, still many more than the average rate.

Youth unemployment as well as underemployment has been a long-standing problem in India and not even college degree are sufficient to shield younger workers from ending up without a job. As the Financial Times reports, India's growth industries are increasingly focusing on high-skilled labor while not being the most labor intensive (think IT, finance or real estate), resulting in selective hiring that leaves big swaths of the young Indian population behind.