Does your degree guarantee a job? The employability crisis in India
This growing employability gap is one of India's most pressing yet under-discussed crises.A COUNTRY OF DEGREES, NOT JOBSAccording to the India Skills Report 2025, only 54.8% of Indian graduates are considered employable, and other estimates place this figure even lower. The Graduate Skill Index 2025 from Mercer|Mettl puts employability at 42.6%, marking a drop from previous years.What's worse, youth unemployment remains staggeringly high. Recent data from CMIE shows that 44.5% of Indians aged 20–24 are unemployed, despite many of them holding graduate or even postgraduate degrees.This isn't just a statistic. It's a reality that affects millions of middle-class families, pushing students into endless cycles of entrance exams, low-paying internships, and underemployment.DEMAND VS SUPPLY: A BROKEN EQUATIONThe problem isn't just the number of jobs it's the kind of jobs available and the skills required.In-demand sectors like Artificial Intelligence, data analytics, cloud computing, and cybersecurity are desperate for skilled workers. These fields report employability rates upwards of 46%, often with 4–5X salary premiums.Meanwhile, non-technical roles in sales, HR, and finance hover around 45% employability, and traditional degrees in humanities or general science often struggle to fetch even that. Recruiters echo the same complaint: 'Graduates have the degree, but not the skills.'
THE COLLEGE CONUNDRUMNot all colleges are created equal. Graduates from Tier-1 institutes (like IITs, BITS, and top private universities) have an average employability of 48.4%. In contrast, Tier-3 or rural college graduates hover around 43%, with limited access to digital tools, industry exposure, or mentoring.Even within engineering a field that churns out 1.5 million graduates annually only 35% are considered employable in core engineering roles.advertisementAdd to this a weak curriculum-industry alignment, outdated syllabi, and negligible internship exposure, and the result is a talent pool that's drowning in certificates but starved of competence.THE SOFT SKILL DEFICITEmployers don't just want hard skills—they want professionals who can think critically, communicate effectively, and adapt quickly. But in the Mercer|Mettl report, only 50% of graduates were employable in communication-based roles. Creative thinking was even lower, at 44.3%.India's education system, long focused on rote learning and exam scores, often sidelines these essential traits.A GENDER AND GEOGRAPHY GAPThe gap isn't just educational it's also geographic and gender-basedDelhi leads the employability index at 53.4%, while states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam fall behindMale graduates slightly outperform females 43.4% vs 41.7% in perceived employabilityRural youth face both digital and social disadvantages, including language barriers and fewer industry connectionsCAN THIS BE FIXED?India is trying.The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promises sweeping reforms, from vocational training in schools to internships as part of college degrees. Initiatives like PMKVY and Skill India aim to retrain and upskill millions. But implementation remains uneven.Private companies are stepping in too. Firms like TCS, Infosys, and Google have launched training programs to bridge the gap but these cater mostly to top-tier colleges or tech-focused roles.advertisementDEGREES WITH DIRECTIONThe solution isn't to produce fewer graduates—but to produce better-prepared ones.India needs:Curriculum reform that matches market demandsMandatory internships and skill-based certificationsSoft skill development from the school levelPartnerships between academia and industryBecause in today's job market, a degree is not a ticket—it's just the starting point.Arjun, the young engineer from Pune, is now taking an online course in AI fundamentals. He's hopeful. But like many others, he wishes someone had told him sooner: In India today, a degree may get you to the door—but skills are what unlock it.- Ends
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