Squandering India's demographic dividend

Looking at the nature of employment among the youth, we find that a disproportionately large share are self-employed

India is facing a serious jobs crisis. The findings of the Periodic Labour Force Survey or PLFS (2017-18) recently reported by this newspaper, reaffirm the enormity of the crisis. For an economy that has typically been characterised by disguised unemployment and has witnessed open unemployment rates in the range of 2 to 3 per cent, an unemployment rate (UR) of 6 per cent is startling to say the least. What is particularly alarming is that the high UR is largely a consequence of unemployment among the youth (15-29 age bracket). The UR for the youth is reported at 17.4 per