The government may be harping on its flagship schemes like Make in India and Skill India to show the progress under Narendra Modi's leadership, but it seems jobs are not being created. According to OECD's India Economic Survey 2017, job creation has not kept up with the working age population.
[File] More than 30 per cent youth in India are not in employment, says a survey | Reuters
“India creates too few quality jobs to meet the aspiration of its growing workforce, leaving many people under-employed, poorly paid or outside the labour force,” says the OECD report.
More than 30 per cent youth in India in the age bracket of 15-29 are not in employment, education and training. The number is more than twice OECD's average and higher than countries like China, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and even Indonesia. "Despite strong economic growth, the employment rate has declined, participation rate of women is low and job creation in the organised sector has plummeted since 2010"', says the report.
The report also says that assessing labour market trends in India is difficult because of poor employment data and the fact that information for total employment is available only after five years, with a lag. Inequalities in wages and in social and labour law coverage are large in India. As labour is a shared responsibility between central government and states, some of the states have taken a lead in reforming labour laws. Rajasthan is one example. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have allowed women to work in night shifts.
National Skill Development and Entrepreneurship programme which supersedes the 2009 skill policy, envisages training 500 million people by 2022. Employer surveys indicate skill shortages in ICT, financial services, tourism, retail and skill intensive manufacturing. In 2015, 58 per cent of employers reported recruitment difficulties because of talent shortages. Large sections of the educated workforce have little or no job skills, making them largely unemployable. It is estimated that only 4.7 per cent of the total work force have undergone formal skill training, much less than in China or South Korea.
