Context

  • In the context of the recent agitations by railway job aspirants in the state of Bihar, the article examines some of the major concerns with respect to employment scenario in India.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

Concerns

High unemployment rates

  • Unemployment was high even before the COVID-19 pandemic, with the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) reporting a 1% unemployment rate in 2017-18. This was the highest unemployment rate in over four decades.
  • The economic disruption caused by the pandemic only worsened the employment scenario. The unemployment rate stood at 7.91% in December 2021. As per the estimates provided by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) nearly 53 million Indians were unemployed with women accounting for a large proportion.
  • Despite some improvement in the current year, the unemployment rate still stands at a worrying 6.57%.

Reducing number of government jobs

  • Not only are the number of government jobs limited but they have also been reducing in number due to the contractualization and outsourcing.

Overqualified candidates seeking middle and lower rung government jobs

  • There has been a large influx of overqualified youth aspiring for middle and lower rung government jobs.
  • This is leading to Underemployment is a measure of employment and labour utilization in the economy that looks at how well the labour force is being used in terms of skills, experience, and availability to work. It refers to a situation in which individuals are forced to work in low-paying or low-skill jobs.
  • This preference for government jobs though they pay lower salaries is because of the greater job security ascribed to them. The private sector jobs are mostly characterized by high job insecurity (easy hire and fire), poor basic pay, and long hours of work. This is contributing to periodic unemployment among the workforce.

High degree of competition

  • Advertisements for even a handful of lower rung government jobs are also attracting large number of applications. The entry of overqualified aspirants results in intense competition among the aspirants.
  • One of the consequences of such heightened competition has been the enforcement of higher and higher qualifications for jobs. This has resulted in massive insecurity among candidates who only meet the minimum eligibility but are having to compete with candidates having higher educational credentials.

High degree of uncertainty

  • In Universities, highly skilled workforce of serving teachers are being forced to hold insecure temporary job contracts.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

Possible factors at play

Insufficient regulation of private sector

  • The lack of adequate regulation of employer-employee work relations in the private sector has triggered periodic unemployment of even the higher skilled workers, who have been spilling over into and crowding lower rung government jobs and also lower-skilled informal sector jobs.

Reduced government expenditure

  • Reduced expenditure by the governments on health, education and the social sector as a whole has also ensured inadequate employment generation to observe the large incoming workforce.

Editorial Analysis For UPSC IAS Current Affairs Preparation

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