• With its population forecast to rise from 1.2 billion in 2010 to almost 1.5 billion in the
next twenty years, India will become the world’s most populous country by 2030.
• India is also set to become the largest contributor to the global workforce. Its
working age population (15-59 years) is likely to swell from 749 million to 962
million over 2010 to 2030.
• If India’s working-age population, its so-called demographic dividend, is
productively employed, India’s economic growth prospects will brighten.
• India can create jobs in the scale required on a sustained basis only with changes
in its policy framework for education and workforce management.
• If the current trends in India’s labour participation and unemployment rate
continue, about 423 million of India’s working-age population will be unemployed
or be unable to participate in the workforce by 2030.
• Since the job market is biased towards high-skilled labour, the creation of jobs for
low-skilled labour, which would continue to dominate its workforce, will challenge
for India.
• Closing the skill gaps of its qualified workforce will be critical, as India depends
more on human capital than its peer countries, which have a similar level of
economic development.
• The workforce will increase maximum in states that are the poorest and offer the
lowest employment opportunity. Creating jobs for the swelling workforce in these
states will be a major challenge.
• Labour-skill mismatch and shortage could adversely impact India’s economic
growth and wage costs; India would have to bear a greater fiscal burden to support
its unemployed.