A cautionary tale for our decision-makers
Deccan ChronicleFormal sector jobs in India are scarce and are highly regarded. Add another 18 million jobs in the government and the total formal sector employment is 145 million, or 61 per cent of the 238 million total non-farm jobs. The top one per cent of the population — around 13 million people — comprising business elites, political dynasties, land-owning “kulaks”, caste elites with muscle, storied filmstars and entertainers, the children of top business executives, doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants and the senior bureaucracy, are born into the “izzat” of “good families”. It is this set of around five million middle class children, who look for “good” jobs every year, for whom heartbreak is just one slip away. Professionals constitute at best 12 per cent of total government employees, so even doubling the strength of professionals only adds around two million "good" jobs over 20 years at the expense of not replacing around 0.1 million low-skilled jobs lost due to attrition every year.
History of this topic
Upskilling India's Workforce: A Roadmap for the Future Economy
Hindustan Times
Data | The contours of India’s ‘formal jobs’ crisis
The Hindu
DC Edit | PM’s jobs drive much needed
Deccan Chronicle
The enormity of job challenge that India faces
Live Mint
India’s job challenge: Options aplenty but well-paying ones elude workforce
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