Ten million Indians with graduate, post-graduate and technical degrees were looking for work, meaning that 15% of all Indians with the highest levels of education were seeking job as of 2011. Kerala had India’s highest graduate unemployment rate at over 30 per cent.
The data emerges from new Census 2011 numbers analysed by The Hindu . Of the 116 million Indians who were either seeking or available for work, 32 million were illiterate and 84 literate. Among literates, unemployment rates were higher among the better qualified, highest of all among the 7.2 million people with a technical diploma or certificate other than a degree. At all levels of education, unemployment rates were higher in rural than in urban areas. At every level of education, especially at the higher levels, female unemployment exceeded male unemployment. The ‘unemployed’ included those who were not currently working but were seeking or available for work, as well as those in marginal employment — meaning that they worked for fewer than six months in the year preceding the Census — who were seeking or available for work. Overall, India’s unemployment rate grew from 6.8 p.c. in 2001 to 9.6 p.c. in 2011, based on official Census data. Unemployment grew faster for illiterates than for literates. In all, India had just 56 million graduates and post-graduates in 2011 and 12 million with a technical certificate or diploma equivalent to a graduate or post-graduate degree. Half of these with the highest level of education were classified as “main workers”, meaning that they worked for at least six months in the year preceding the Census.
