The need of the hour is to uplift both the educational and hiring framework of the nation- keeping skilling as a focal point to drive empowerment.

The writing is clear on the wall- India is a job graveyard that no one wants to touch. This comes as a shock as in other fields, India is bursting with development. India has recently managed to surpass the estimated 6.6 % growth for the full fiscal year 2018 and its gross domestic product grew at 7.7% in the fourth quarter. As per the findings of the Economic Survey, India has become the fastest-growing economy in the world, with growth in key sectors like:

• Infrastructure, "Make in India" initiative
• Financial Services, the mobile payment system in rural India
• Technology, an online population of 462 million-plus users
• Automotive, government's 10-year Automotive Mission Plan 
• Healthcare with the expectations of India becoming a $280 billion market by 2020

Yet on the job front, things look bleak. The job scenario in the country has been critical with 2018 being labelled as the year of jobless growth. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has reported that close to 11 million Indians became jobless in the last quarter of 2018. In this, the worst affected people belonged to rural India accounting for the loss of 9.1 million jobs. The report also indicated that the job loss was highest among the uneducated people especially women (6.5 million) in rural areas. Furthermore, the International Labour Organization has predicted that the number of jobless people in 2019 will be only higher than last years with an unemployment rate of 3.5%. 

Some upcoming information- some 77% of workers in India will have vulnerable employment by 2019 and while the overall unemployment rate hovered between 3.4% to 3.5% in the years 2017-19, the unemployment rate in the age group of 15-24 years is much higher, which is expected to increase further from 10% in2014 to 10.7% in 2019. In 2017, the unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 10.5%.

To throw a light on things, let us take a closer look at reality. While India makes give the impression of being filled to the brim with opportunities, such is not the case as the market of organized jobs are few, with the No. 1 spot being taken by Bangalore with its 2 million IT professionals racing to overtake Silicon Valley by 2020. Next comes Gurugram, which rose to fame owing to its proximity to Delhi and having the right infrastructure to house the nation’s biggest conglomerates. The Bollywood city Mumbai is -regarded as the commercial capital of India owing to a variety of jobs in Logistics, IT, healthcare etc. Completing the list is Delhi, the national capital which is an extremely-important economic centre for India with 1.5 lakh professionals working here are from states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and NRC regions. Yet, overcrowding of the job markets has thrown a bleak light with the employment rate falling to 5.29 % in May from 5.64 % in April 2018. 

This has a variety of reason, the primary being hiring in India’. Here, the formal job market remained stagnant even as growth accelerated at the fastest pace among the world’s biggest economies. The clarion of “Economy is generating fewer jobs per unit of GDP” holds as more work is now being done with fewer employees. We can also refer to the poor quality of jobs being created, where mass hiring has become a regular thing. Final and the most important cause is that young and bright of our country lack the right skill set to rise to the challenge. 

The need of the hour is to uplift both the educational and hiring framework of the nation- keeping skilling as a focal point to drive empowerment. That is where Youth4work comes into play, an exciting and innovative talent development initiative, providing youngsters with the key to growth, via self-assessment, self-introspection and improvement of their skills is the motto of this youth-centric organization. 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house