India is sitting on what economists like to call a demographic dividend—hundreds of millions of young people who could power the economy for decades. On paper it looks brilliant. In practice, the numbers tell a rather different story.
Graduates in the age group of 15-29 face the highest unemployment rate of any group at 22.7 per cent—more than three times higher than for people who never finished school.
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| Chart - Data Point, The Hindu |
They make up only 17 per cent of the youth population yet account for 56 per cent of all unemployed young people. Most of the labour force still earns very little: only about 22 per cent take home more than ₹15,000 a month, while nearly 55 per cent earn below ₹9,000. And only around 17 out of every 100 graduates land the kind of salaried job a degree is supposed to deliver.
Zoom out and the mismatch becomes starker. India has roughly 15 million meaningful jobs and about 300 million young people. In 2024 alone, roughly 30 lakh candidates chased just 17,700 government posts—about 170 people for every vacancy. That is less a queue and more a stampede.
The roots of the problem are not mysterious. India spends about 2.7 per cent of GDP on education, well short of the 6 per cent national target, and around 1.9 per cent on health, below the 2.5 per cent goal set for 2025. Without better schools, skills and basic healthcare, the demographic dividend risks turning into a demographic headache.
Plenty of young Indians are ready and willing to work. The question is whether the economy—and the public investment behind it—can create enough decent jobs to match their numbers.