Imagine spending the best years of your life, from age 22 to 29, in a waiting room. You are educated, ambitious and capable. But the job you are waiting for has odds worse than a lottery. So you study harder, attempt again and wait once more. This is the lived reality for an estimated 11 million young graduates in India today.

The fifth edition of the State of Working India report, published this month by Azim Premji University, reveals a startling statistic: 67% of all unemployed youth aged 20–29 are graduates—1.1 crore people. In 2004, graduates constituted just 32% of the unemployed youth cohort. Their share in the youth population has risen from 10% to 28% over two decades. But employment has not kept pace. Between 2004 and 2023, India produced roughly 50 lakh graduates every year. Only 28 lakh found employment annually, and........

© Free Press Journal