Youth Employment and Unemployment in India:Trends and Dimensions

This paper seeks to understand the trends and dimensions of youth employment and unemployment in India and her 15 major states over a period spanning over past 25 years or so (1983 to 2009-10). Such an understanding is necessary to appreciate the difficulties faced by the youth in the labour market today as also to highlight the necessity of devising more effective policies to improve their labour market outcomes than those hitherto been followed. Beginning with a discussion on age group-wise distribution of population, employed/workers and unemployed in all-India and 15 major states, we move on to examine the trends and patterns of employment for the youth and non-youth groups in terms of indicators like labour force participation rate, workforce participation rate, growth of employment, sectoral composition of employment and modes of employment. We also look into the unemployment scenarios for the youth and non-youth groups and changes therein in all-India and 15 major states. Finally, we carry out an econometric exercise to identify some important determinants of the youth in India being employed (as against remaining unemployed).