Youth employment and unemployment in India

S. Mahendra Dev () and M. Venkatanarayana
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S. Mahendra Dev: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research
M. Venkatanarayana: Centre for Economic and Social Studies

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India

Abstract: Increase in the share of youth population due to demographic `dividend' or the `youth bulge' seems to be one of the sources of future economic growth in India. Although with increase in school and college enrolment rates, the proportion of youth in the labour force has been declining, their high proportions in the labour force indicate that the problem of youth unemployment and underemployment would remain a serious policy issue for many more years to come in India. In this context, this paper examines the employment and unemployment situation of the youth in India during the last two-and-half decades viz., 1983 to 2007-08. It analyses the trends in labour force and workforce participation rates, unemployment, joblessness, working poor, growth and employment elasticities etc. The paper also offers policy recommendations for increasing productive employment and reduction in unemployment for the youth. The poor employability of the workforce would hamper the advantages due to demographic dividend if measures are not taken to improve the educational attainment and skill development of the youth.

Keywords: Youth Employment; unemployment; skill development; joblessness; demographic dividend; literacy; school education; vocational training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J10 J11 J21 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2011-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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