For a country to have resources is an advantage and every country in the world has this one particular resource which is actually more valuable than all other resources combined. It’s the human resource and more specifically the youth. Common sense dictates that youth or the human resource of a nation should be treated like making a long-term investment which will yield results in future. But in order to bear fruit, one has to take care and nurture the plant because you reap what you sow. The scenario of joblessness in India is the result of not caring.
Instead of being an asset, human resource in our country is becoming a liability. The timing couldn’t be more inopportune for the 7th largest economy in the world, which is growing at more than 7% rate with a stagnant job market. Government data shows that the number of students passing from colleges is at least five times greater than the number of students getting placed. The government’s promising scheme to create 10 mil jobs has gone awry and alternate solutions like skill development programmes, make in India initiative and self-employment by encouraging start-ups in India are also falling short.
Youth4work found alarming gaps between job seekers and jobs available among tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Being a youth assessment platform, Youth4work surveyed 20000+ recruiters on its portal to draw insights and conclusion to understand the hiring trends in India for 2018. The online portal has a user base of more than 3 mil students from all over India and each of the user has been assessed as per his/her talents, employable skills and qualifications. There are 3105423 profiled users/students including freshers and candidates with experiences ranging from 0 to 10 years while the total number of jobs displayed on Youth4work is 44970.
Top employment cities
- Bengaluru
- Gurgaon
- Mumbai
- Delhi
- Indore
Sectors That Will Create Jobs
- IT,
- Financial Technology,
- e-commerce,
- auto technology,
- healthcare,
- FMCG and banking
Tier 1 cities comparison (3105423 Total Profiles and 44970 Total jobs)
Total job seekers on Y4W platform with cities wise bifurcation
| Cities | %of TotalJob | %of Total JobsSeekers |
| Delhi | 0.92% | 9.25% |
| Mumbai | 0.8% | 5.72% |
| Bangalore | 1.12% | 5.75% |
| Hyderabad | 0.75% | 5.56% |
| Pune | 0.43% | 3.41% |
Tier 2 cities comparison (3105423 Total Profiles and 44970 Total jobs)
| Cities | %of Total Job | %of Total JobsSeekers |
| Jaipur | 0.16% | 1.59% |
| Coimbatore | 0.27% | 1.38% |
| Lucknow | 0.1% | 1.29% |
| Bhubaneshwar | 0.06% | 1.13% |
| Bhopal | 0.06% | 1.08% |
The job seekers’ ratio is better in Tier 2 cities as compared to Tier 1 cities which means skill employment rate is better in tier 2 cities.In top cities skilled job seekers are in larger numbers as immigration plays a key factor, hence the job ratio is bad. If we compare Delhi’s stats with other cities, then it can be clearly seen that the capital of India doesn’t offer as good job opportunities as it should, which indicates central government is not creating enough jobs to accommodate all the talent in Delhi.
Talent Demand vs. Supply
Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, 1125752 Total numbers of Profiles in Tier 1 & 2 cities and 44970 Total number of jobsout of which 5000 jobs are active for job seekers –
Stats of Active jobs vs Jobseekers
| Cities | Number of Jobs | Number of Youth |
| Delhi | 450 | 287477 |
| Mumbai | 370 | 177486 |
| Bangalore | 510 | 178525 |
| Hyderabad | 325 | 173808 |
| Pune | 210 | 106777 |
| Jaipur | 80 | 49526 |
| Coimbatore | 135 | 43062 |
| Lucknow | 55 | 40402 |
| Bhubaneshwar | 35 | 35101 |
| Bhopal | 45 | 33588 |
Insights as per the findings
Top skills preferred by the recruiters among youth
- Aptitude
- Communication skills
- Computer skills
- Sales and marketing
Top education qualifications preferred by the recruiters among youth
- B Com
- MBA
- BBA
- BA
- B Tech
- MCA
Understanding the Gap
The actual number of unemployed youth in India is more than 31 million according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Youth4work has skill tested the profiles of 3105423 users from all States of India. However, the total number of jobs listed are 44970, which is disappointing. The number of jobs isn’t rising as per the requirement. This gap between job seekers and available jobs will get wider if we add the number of fresh graduates entering the job market and immigrants coming in search of jobs from other cities.
Rising Technology holds the solution
While the number of jobs continue to rise at a depressing rate, the recruiters put their hopes in creation of jobs through technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing, blockchain and machine learning. The scope of AI seems promising but the aspects of machine learning and data science lack depth in understanding, especially in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Rural parts of India are mostly unaware of such technological advancements, which might render the current skilled labour as useless in near future.
Moreover, recruiters also need to rethink their HR tech strategies in order to improve the processes of hiring. The biggest problems that employers have to deal with are employee retention and staff training. Purchasing the right kind of HR tech will not only reduce unnecessary costs of operation but also help improve employee experience. Also, recruiters should not depend solely on technology to solve all the business-related issues, human intervention will be required from time to time.
Problem with start-ups
Government initiatives like Skill training and self-employment are great ideas. Still the results aren’t up to satisfaction because most of the start-ups and enterprises are generic in nature. That is why these new start-ups face systemic inefficiencies after some time due to shortage of funds, lack of technology, absence of skilled human resource and by not having sound long term growth strategies. Therefore, these enterprises end up further adding to the unemployment rate of the country.
Conclusion
- The need of the hour is more systematically driven start-ups.
- There is a need to regulate the activities of new start-ups.
- The government should bring in policies which make the access of skill training programmes easier to business minded individuals along with access to easy capital.
- AI/Machine Learning courses should be introduced to the students to prepare them for the future job scenarios.