A Twitter survey was conducted on India’s job situation — informal, not scientific, usual disclaimers apply — on my account. More than 20,000 people participated. Two questions were asked. One, how difficult is it for an average graduate to get a job? A whopping 87% said it was difficult to very difficult. If this is the situation for college graduates, one can only imagine what is happening to those less qualified.
The second question: what is the starting salary expectation for an average graduate? Around 61% said they expected between Rs 5,000-15,000 a month. These are the results of a Twitter survey conducted in English and answered by a relatively sophisticated audience.
To say the situation is dire is no exaggeration. According to a McKinsey report, even when India’s GDP grew over 7% per annum during 2013-15, job growth was only 1.7%. As an example, Kanpur Municipal Corporation was flooded with 7 lakh applications for 3,275 safai karamchari vacancies; 5 lakh of them were graduates and postgraduates. Last month, the railways got 2 crore applications for less than one lakh lower level Group C and D jobs.
When I travel across India, I find several youths looking for appropriate jobs. Many educated youngsters continue to live with their parents, spending their day on smartphones, watching YouTube videos and on social networks. They aspire to jobs that are just not there. Whatever the government might think, they are not happy just to be ‘pakodawallas.’ Media, advertisers, internet access and exaggerated poll promises have created enormous, unfulfillable aspirations. There is a real risk that this disillusionment will morph into frustration and anger that could lead to more crime and unrest.
There are several reasons for this job crisis. One is automation, which is beyond anyone’s immediate control. For instance, online shopping is killing retail employment; online banking and ATMs are killing bank branch jobs; travel apps are ending travel agent jobs, and so on. The only action a country can take is to create a society that rewards cutting-edge innovation. This ensures that even if new technology kills jobs, we are on top of it and can benefit from the new jobs technology creates. However, considering we reward dynasts and crony capitalists, this is highly unlikely.
A society that rewards innovation is built very differently. It involves personal freedom and a level playing field. We don’t even have a playing field, forget a level one. This brings us to factors we can control, and need to work on, to change the job scenario.
We have failed in three main areas. One, we have messed up the government-private sector relationship. Deep down, our netas and babus love it when a billionaire comes to them with folded hands. It’s something to feel good about: ‘Dekha, itna ameer aadmi bhi mere aage jhukta hai (even such a rich man bows before me)’.
This sense of importance among those in power has led to a horrible government-private sector equation. There are laws in India that can be used to harass business owners, and they’re applied selectively.
In recent years, this relationship has become worse. Demonetisation and GST created a fear in business owners that ‘they’re out to get us’. This makes them think a hundred times before making big investments. For instance, realty is in shambles. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, necessary in some form, is onerous on builders. Taxes are too high. A buyer who’s paid for a flat with after-tax income, now also pays GST, not to mention stamp duty. How can a sector thrive like this? The main sufferers are job seekers as no jobs will be created.
Second, our manufacturing hasn’t taken off. The Make in India campaign has not worked. The failure to pass the land acquisition bill (remember that?) is a big factor. Unless it becomes easy to set up factories in interior India, jobs will not reach there.
The third area is education. While lack of jobs is one part of the problem, lack of trained students is the other. As aspirations to be ‘well-educated’ rose, dubious colleges mushroomed. You can see them on any national highway. The government’s decision not to allow ‘for profit’ and foreign universities has had the effect of shady guys ruling the sector. If we churn out useless graduates by design, is it any surprise that industry doesn’t want them?
Overall, we need a real set of reforms where the government steps back and lets the private sector grow and breathe. Also, the education system has to be rejigged to create incentives for blue-chip corporates and top academics to get into education, and get the shady guys out.
A job is not just a way to feed our stomachs. It can be a big part of a person’s identity. If we can’t provide jobs for our new generation, we would have failed as a nation. India’s young people deserve better.
The second question: what is the starting salary expectation for an average graduate? Around 61% said they expected between Rs 5,000-15,000 a month. These are the results of a Twitter survey conducted in English and answered by a relatively sophisticated audience.
To say the situation is dire is no exaggeration. According to a McKinsey report, even when India’s GDP grew over 7% per annum during 2013-15, job growth was only 1.7%. As an example, Kanpur Municipal Corporation was flooded with 7 lakh applications for 3,275 safai karamchari vacancies; 5 lakh of them were graduates and postgraduates. Last month, the railways got 2 crore applications for less than one lakh lower level Group C and D jobs.
When I travel across India, I find several youths looking for appropriate jobs. Many educated youngsters continue to live with their parents, spending their day on smartphones, watching YouTube videos and on social networks. They aspire to jobs that are just not there. Whatever the government might think, they are not happy just to be ‘pakodawallas.’ Media, advertisers, internet access and exaggerated poll promises have created enormous, unfulfillable aspirations. There is a real risk that this disillusionment will morph into frustration and anger that could lead to more crime and unrest.
There are several reasons for this job crisis. One is automation, which is beyond anyone’s immediate control. For instance, online shopping is killing retail employment; online banking and ATMs are killing bank branch jobs; travel apps are ending travel agent jobs, and so on. The only action a country can take is to create a society that rewards cutting-edge innovation. This ensures that even if new technology kills jobs, we are on top of it and can benefit from the new jobs technology creates. However, considering we reward dynasts and crony capitalists, this is highly unlikely.
A society that rewards innovation is built very differently. It involves personal freedom and a level playing field. We don’t even have a playing field, forget a level one. This brings us to factors we can control, and need to work on, to change the job scenario.
We have failed in three main areas. One, we have messed up the government-private sector relationship. Deep down, our netas and babus love it when a billionaire comes to them with folded hands. It’s something to feel good about: ‘Dekha, itna ameer aadmi bhi mere aage jhukta hai (even such a rich man bows before me)’.
This sense of importance among those in power has led to a horrible government-private sector equation. There are laws in India that can be used to harass business owners, and they’re applied selectively.
In recent years, this relationship has become worse. Demonetisation and GST created a fear in business owners that ‘they’re out to get us’. This makes them think a hundred times before making big investments. For instance, realty is in shambles. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, necessary in some form, is onerous on builders. Taxes are too high. A buyer who’s paid for a flat with after-tax income, now also pays GST, not to mention stamp duty. How can a sector thrive like this? The main sufferers are job seekers as no jobs will be created.
Second, our manufacturing hasn’t taken off. The Make in India campaign has not worked. The failure to pass the land acquisition bill (remember that?) is a big factor. Unless it becomes easy to set up factories in interior India, jobs will not reach there.
The third area is education. While lack of jobs is one part of the problem, lack of trained students is the other. As aspirations to be ‘well-educated’ rose, dubious colleges mushroomed. You can see them on any national highway. The government’s decision not to allow ‘for profit’ and foreign universities has had the effect of shady guys ruling the sector. If we churn out useless graduates by design, is it any surprise that industry doesn’t want them?
Overall, we need a real set of reforms where the government steps back and lets the private sector grow and breathe. Also, the education system has to be rejigged to create incentives for blue-chip corporates and top academics to get into education, and get the shady guys out.
A job is not just a way to feed our stomachs. It can be a big part of a person’s identity. If we can’t provide jobs for our new generation, we would have failed as a nation. India’s young people deserve better.