52.8% of India's Graduate Youth Employed in Low-Skill Jobs

A large proportion of graduate youth in India are not finding work commensurate with their educational qualifications. In 2022, 52.8% of employed young graduates were working in low-skill jobs. These details have emerged from a working paper by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, highlighting the growing divide between education and employment.

The working paper is titled 'How India's Educational Capacity is Changing under NEP 2020: School Networks, Higher Education and Pathways to Work'. The report has been authored by Soumyakanti Ghosh, Member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and Group Chief Economic Adviser of State Bank of India, and Shashidharan Sharma, an economist at State Bank of India. To prepare this report, the authors have referenced data from the 'India Employment Report 2024' by the International Labour Organization and the Human Development Institute.

According to the report, 52.8% of degree-holding youth employed in 2022 were engaged in low-skill work, proving that merely possessing a degree does not guarantee a job according to educational qualifications. Yearly data presents this disparity more clearly. The share of graduate youth in low-skill jobs was 44.5% in 2005, which increased to 45.6% in 2019 and reached 52.8% in 2022.

A significant difference was also observed between male and female graduates in employment figures. In 2022, 58.4% of young male graduates were in low-skill jobs, while this figure was 36.8% for young female graduates. However, among youth who completed post-graduation, the total share of those in low-skill jobs was recorded at 27.2%.

The authors clarified that these figures do not mean the importance of a degree has diminished. In their view, the benefit derived from higher education is not uniform for everyone. It depends more on the institution, curriculum, field of study, internships, work experience, and professional networks. The problem is not limited only to the level of required skills, but the nature of employment is also significant. 2022 data shows that 57.8% of employed youth with a graduate degree or higher were in regular salaried jobs, but only 36.1% of youth were in formal employment. It is important to note here that a regular salaried job does not necessarily mean the employee will receive social security benefits associated with formal employment.

India's higher education system has seen significant expansion over the last decade. Student enrollment was 3.42 crore in 2014-15, which increased by 31.5% to reach 4.50 crore in 2023-24. However, against the increasing number of degree holders, the pathways to skilled employment have not strengthened at the same pace. Limited access to vocational and technical education is considered a primary reason for this. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2025, only 5% of people aged 15 to 29 had received formal vocational or technical training.

Due to this situation, a large proportion of youth choose the traditional path of study, while other options could provide more direct preparation for specific work. The paper describes this situation as a 'crowding of qualifications'. Families consider an academic degree the safest route for social and economic progress, while employers are no longer looking at just the degree. According to the authors, vocational education was previously given less importance, employer participation has not been consistent, and opportunities for further advancement in higher education through it were not certain, leading students to continue competing for traditional degrees. To solve this problem, emphasis has been placed on improving the quality of education, promoting vocational training, and strengthening the role of industries.

The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council is an institution of the Government of India that provides advice to the Prime Minister on the economy and economic policies. This council helps in the country's economic development through research and analysis on various economic subjects.