It's raining degrees amid job drought as graduates struggle to make ends meet

Rana Siddiqui Zaman | NT

Bengaluru: An alarmingly high number of graduates have been forced into taking up jobs usually done by people with fewer qualifications.

The phenomenon is something that skews unemployment rates, which don’t take into consideration graduates either taking up jobs out of necessity or hoping that the “temporary jobs” would help them to transition to something that meets their aspirations.

These “temp jobs” include anything from that of a cook, mobile salesperson, contributing to existing small businesses or simply returning home without employment.

A recent research from Azim Premji University (APU) headed by Economics Professor Amit Basole disclosed that 42 per cent of the graduates are jobless in India. This is despite the fact that employment showed an increase of 15 per cent after the pandemic.

Ravi Kumar (27) has a BE in civil engineering from Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology (VIT). The Mangaluru native bemoans that he “didn’t get a job in his field till date”.

So he had to resort to repairing mobiles. He shifted to Bengaluru looking for a job two years ago and landed one in mobile sales and marketing. Mohammed Shakeel (23) had to discontinue his studies after high school because his family was in need of another breadwinner.

Not finding any work and fed up "because of the bad atmosphere, including looting and killing on petty thefts” in Mangaluru, he came to Bengaluru, partnered with someone and started a catering business in Jayamahal Extension.

His chef, himself a degree holder, is from Bihar. He participates in cooking and doubles as a delivery worker as well. He now dreams of “going to Dubai to run a catering business and graduating from a private institute.”

The men refused to share photos, fearing backlash from the family, who don’t know of the profession they have taken up in Bengaluru. Delhi-based 43-year-old Vedika (name changed) is a former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) employee who, “after being bored with figures and data”, wanted to do a job that gratified her love for crafts.

Unable to find one, she worked with a multinational firm at Gurugram, but resigned within few years, as her recognized skills at SEBI weren’t put to use there.

“They were young, knew nothing and treated me like I didn’t give enough results. My young boss promoted a junior over me to prove a point. So I resigned,” she said.

Rooted in govt data

The Azim Premji University (APU) research was prepared with the help of findings from official datasets such as the National Statistical Office’s Employment-Unemployment Surveys (NSOEUS), the Periodic Labour Force Surveys, the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS), the Annual Survey of Industries, and the Economic and Population Censuses.

“Post-Covid unemployment rate is lower than it was pre-Covid, for all education levels. But it remains above 15 per cent for graduates and more worryingly it touches a huge 42 per cent for graduates under 25 years,” an extract from the research read.

The report, released on September 20, reveals that while 42.3 per cent of graduates under 25 were unemployed in 2021-2022, the unemployment rate was at 21.4 per cent for youth who completed higher secondary education.

The overall self-employment has therefore reduced in actual terms and the increase in self-employment is a result of economic distress, the study found. Notably, women are also withdrawing from the labour force and becoming self-employed. 

Moreover, the youth preparing for competitions for white-collar jobs find that the jobs available meet their necessities but not their aspirations. The study focuses on the youth but many skilled people in their 40s and beyond face the very same problem.

Agreeing with this, Basole, said: “Yes, in one, it is the case of ‘mismatch’, in another, it is about not realising the potential. Consequences for both would be different.”

According to a research report by UKbased Henley and Partners, about 8,000 High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs) were expected to leave India late last year, making India the third largest HNI exodus nation after Russia and China. “It is a fairly small number looking at the size of the Indian population where we are talking in terms of millions,” Basole said.

Indian National Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the Modi government, in a post on the micro-blogging site X. “The promise of 2 cr jobs per year, echoes like a cruel joke in the hearts and minds of our young, the process from graduation to getting a job is a sad story of daily struggle,” he