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Graduate unemployment is four times the overall rate
On MoSPI's usual-status series, unemployment among graduates aged 15 and over was 13.0% in 2023-24, against 3.2% for all workers on the same measure. The graduate rate has fallen from 17.2% in 2017-18, and over the same years it rose from about three times the overall rate to about four times. Over the same years regular wage and salaried work slipped from 22.8% to 21.7% of all workers, so graduates looking for salaried jobs entered a labour market where the share of such jobs was not growing.
What follows. Aggregate labour data masks the structural mismatch facing the educated workforce.
Unemployment among graduates
2004-2013 average none published; 2014-2026 average 15.4%; latest 13.0% in 2023. Source, method and every year.
Unemployment rate, ages 15 and over
2004-2013 average none published; 2014-2026 average 4.3%; latest 5.2% in 2026. Source, method and every year.
One of 37 readings of the dataset, rebuilt whenever the data are refreshed. Data vintage 2026-10-10. Cite as Raman, V.S., Some Perspective: India's Political Economy, 2004-2026, someperspective.info, CC BY 4.0.