IMF economist raises concern over rising youth unemployment in India

• According to a senior IMF Economist, India stands highest in terms of youth inactivity at 30%.
• Recently, a report by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) released unemployment numbers — increased to 7.2% last month.
• Reportedly, about 8 million-10 million young professionals enter the job market every year in India.

Despite India being among the fastest-growing economies in the world, the country stands highest in terms of youth inactivity at 30% among emerging economies, said John Bluedorn, International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior Economist, on Wednesday while addressing labour markets in developing economies.

This may be due to the challenging labour market in India, gender gap, unemployment and job quality, among others, according to him. He noted that the emerging economies are more prone to technology and automation than the developed ones.

Addressing the event, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President at CII, reportedly said that about 8-10 million young professionals enter the workforce every year, but there is no capital investment from the private sector.

Rising unemployment in India has becoming a big issue in the election year. PM Modi had made creating jobs one of the main planks of his development agenda when he got elected in 2014.

According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), unemployment rate in India increased to 7.2% last month, that is the highest since September 2016. The NSSO survey released earlier also highlighted India’s unemployment rate at 6.1%, which was highest in last 45 years.

In the wake of the NSSO data, the government admitted India wasn’t creating enough high-quality jobs and that opportunities in the startup-led services sector like cab hailing services could not be ruled out.

One of the measures according to Mittal to tackle unemployment issue in the country, he added that universities and colleges should focus on the requirements of the global job market in next five years, and not just the placements at the end of the academic session.

See also:
India's unemployment rate for February highest in two years: CMIE

Global unemployment rate is lowest since 2008 financial crisis