As the education level rises, the rate of unemployment also increases, shows data by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
The unemployment rate among the highly educated stood at 13.2 percent during September-December 2018.
People with bachelor’s degrees and above account for only 10 percent of India’s total working age population.
The rate of unemployment among women with bachelor’s and master’s degrees has been higher than men at 35 percent.
Unemployment has emerged as a key challenge for the Indian government as it heads into the general elections.
A recent analysis by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has shown that the rate of unemployment among qualified youth those with bachelor degrees and higher — has seen a sharp increase from mid-2017.
The report has highlighted that the unemployment rate for the given group was projected at 13.2 percent during September December period in 2018. While in 2017, the number stood at 12.1 percent for the qualified Indians. The highly educated set of individuals those with bachelor’s degrees and above faced the maximum unemployment while the students who passed high school stood at 10.6 percent in terms of unemployment numbers.
The CMIE’s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey bifurcated the unemployment numbers according to the levels of education. People who have completed a bachelor’s degree or any other higher level of education account for only 10 percent of the working-age population of India. While over 100 million had a bachelor’s degree or higher as of 2018. Out of these, nearly 53 million of those were employed. While eight million were looking for jobs.
Postgraduates (master’s or higher) in India have been facing the biggest challenge to fetch jobs. The unemployment rate among those with a master’s degree is twice the unemployment among the entire labor force, according to the report.
India has a labor participation rate of 61 percent for the graduation and above group, which was below 60 percent mark, a year ago. Labour participation rate is the number of employed people or the ones seeking employment.
Unemployment among women
While the overall labor participation rate employed and seeking jobs — in the country has improved from the past few years, female participation was still significantly low at 11.1 percent during September-December 2018. However, for the females with higher educational qualifications, the numbers hit 22.6 percent, which is more than twice compared to the average female participation. The unemployment rate among women in this segment stood at 35 percent during the same period. In contrast, the rate of unemployment for men stood at 10 percent.
Courtesy: Business Insider
