Why does more education sometimes mean a longer wait for a job?

More education is supposed to make finding work easier, yet many graduates wait longer for jobs. In today's YOUR INDIA column, Santosh Nair looks at graduate unemployment, employability and the gap between what colleges teach and what employers need.

A young woman finishes her degree, then a second one, hoping it improves her chances. Two years later, she is still looking for the right job, while a relative who never finished school is already working, earning a small but steady wage.

It feels backwards. Surely more education should mean an easier path to work, not a harder one.

The numbers say something genuinely uncomfortable here. According to India’s Employment Report, prepared by the International Labour Organization and the Institute for Human Development, the unemployment rate among graduates stood at 29.1 per cent, compared to just 3.4 per cent among people who cannot read or write. Among young people with a secondary education or higher, unemployment was 18.4 per cent. And the share of unemployed young Indians who are actually educated rose sharply, from 54.2 per cent in the year 2000 to 65.7 per cent by 2022.

Read carefully, this is not really the paradox it first appears to be.

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