India's Job Market in Charts

The Times of India carried a data story titled "The Job Report" on 20-07-2024 by Atul Thakur & Richa Gandhi who also contribute to the paper's data analysis articles & its Data Dive section. It has good insights on India's employment landscape supplemented with charts -

Bar chart from the report shows that a majority of employed Indians are self-employed (57.3%) followed by regular salary (20.9%) and casual labor (21.8%)

In the total workforce of 621 million (62.1 crore), just 15 million (1.5 crore) or 2.4% are Government employees

Government data indicates that from 2014 to 2022, 220 million (22 crore) individuals applied for federal positions, with 722,000 being successful. While many applications were likely repeated attempts, a significant number of young Indians continue to pursue government employment annually, despite a flourishing economy and a growing private sector.

The choropleth maps of India graphically show the unemployment data for youth unemployment and overall unemployment.

Source: The Times of India

Some other interesting facts -

• India has the world's largest young population - there were 4.3 crore students enrolled in higher education institutions alone. 

• India is emerging as a global employment exchange. Falling and aging population in most developed countries has created a shortage of executives and workers across industries and hierarchies

• India is emerging as the largest exporter of human talent. But the global demand currently doesn't match the supply in India.

Data sources - PLFS 2022-23 & Jan-Mar 2024, RBI's KLEMS database, dataforindia.org, World Bank, ILO