India’s Millions of Jobseekers Are Short on Skills
Substandard schooling and vocational education are producing too many graduates that companies don’t want to hire.
India doesn’t have enough skilled jobseekers.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/BloombergIndia’s destiny for centuries to come will be determined by the young people joining its workforce today. A few years ago — in 2019, by some calculations — the country entered the most favorable stage of its demographic transition. There are more working-age people than those over 65 or under 16. This will be true for another three or so decades; if India doesn’t grow rich in that period, then the chances are it will stay poor forever.
That’s a great responsibility for this generation — and one it can only fulfill if it the right jobs are available, allowing them to increase their productivity and grow incomes. But those don’t seem to exist. India’s growth numbers may appear comfortable, but that isn’t being accompanied by an expansion of employment. There are no reliable statistics on joblessness rates — and these are deceptive in poorer countries anyway. But scenes like those in 2022, when 12.5 million candidates applied for 35,000 junior positions in Indian Railways and then rioted over the selection process illustrate the scale of the challenge.