The Indian workforce underwent a significant structural shift along the education axis post the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020. People with only a little education were the biggest losers of employment. Well-educated people also lost jobs. They, the graduates and post-graduates, have still not recovered those casualties. On the other hand, people with higher secondary education and not much more have gained jobs. Both ends of the education spectrum have been losers and, the middle has gained.
Jobs held by graduates and post-graduates (graduates-plus) were increasing steadily till the pandemic. They rose from 51.5 million in 2016-17 to 52.9 million in 2017-18 and 54.3 million in 2018-19. They dropped in the middle of 2019-20 but rose again and the year ended
