There are very few good salaried jobs in India New Delhi : The first part of this series looked at official data on the intersection of education and employment in India and explained why the educated youth are angry about education not helping them get a good job and also why they are trying to pivot towards education that could help solve this crisis. This part will take the focus away from education to the larger economy, where jobs are to be generated.There are very few good salaried jobs in India (Unsplash)There are very few good salaried jobs in IndiaUnemployment in India is more about postponing the day of settling for an undesirable job than about not finding a job. PLFS data shows this clearly. Only 24% of India’s working people have a salaried job. A large share of this small pie comes with sticks rather than carrots. 39% of India’s total salaried jobs do not offer a written contract, paid leaves, or any social security benefit. Only 32.5% of them offer all three.
Getting a government job significantly increases the chances of landing the latter than the former kind with no perks. 64% of government jobs come with all three perks compared to only 24% in the private sector. Add to this metric the job security that comes with a government job, and one can understand why millions of educated young job-aspirants keep slogging to crack a government job exam. It also explains why paper leaks make them so angry.Dearth of good private sector jobs is despite corporate India spending more on salaries as a share of incomeThis is the most damning piece of statistic. It is one thing for the private sector not to generate quality employment because company owners are stingy about spending on salaries. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s Prowess database shows that the trend in India has been the opposite of companies not wanting to spend money on salaries.
