The sanctified cockroaches, an epithet given by a tall member of the judiciary, are rocking the country’s systems as a deep unemployment or disguised job situation engulfs.
While the Periodical Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023-24 (PLFS) puts overall unemployment at around 3percent, it reveals a much deeper youth employment crisis. Gen Z faces an unemployment rate of 11.9percent, exposing the widening gap between the stated rapid economic growth and the creation of stable, productive jobs. India’s much-vaunted demographic dividend is therefore under strain, compounded by uncertain forms of employment, including short-term defence schemes like Agniveer.
The challenge is particularly acute among educated young people. Graduate unemployment stands at 29percent among young men and 36.9percent among young women, highlighting the economy’s limited capacity to absorb an increasingly educated workforce.
The Economic Survey 2025–26 has warned of the growing vulnerability of gig work, or casualisation of employment rising 55 percent between FY21 and FY25. Paid per task rather than through regular salaries, and often without adequate social security, gig workers face punishing work pressures while bearing much of the economic risk.
India may be creating more work, but increasingly at the cost of job security and dignity.
The problem, therefore, is not simply a shortage of jobs but a shortage of stable, productive and formal employment. India needs to move beyond a model of growth that expands output without generating enough jobs. Labour-intensive manufacturing, industry-oriented skills, stronger links between education and employment, and a significant expansion of formal-sector opportunities are essential.
Impractical, Escapist 2047 Target
Generation Z, generally defined as those born between 1997 and 2012, represents a large and increasingly important segment of India’s working-age population. PLFS 2023–24 data indicate an estimated 29.94 crore Gen Z individuals in India’s labour market.
This generation sits at the heart of India’s demographic opportunity. With the country seeking to become a $30-trillion economy by 2047, its ability to convert a young population into a skilled, productive workforce will be decisive. Is it a practical solution? Why the target was not put at 2030? Most, forget millennials, even Gen Z would not be there in 2047.
Is setting a target so far into the future not an escapist idea? By the time it comes to be judged, most of those making the promise may no longer be around —a promise virtually in the mists of time.
Or is it way to camouflage the risk turning into a demographic burden?
Instead, high unemployment and the expansion of informal and gig work raise a fundamental question: Can rapid economic growth generate enough decent and productive employment?
Company Profits, Workers Suffer
India’s gig economy is expanding rapidly as a large young workforce confronts a shortage of formal, salaried jobs. Low entry barriers, flexible hours and quick payments give illusion of gig work being attractive. Digital aggregator-contractors, mostly sublet large biz expand rapidly while avoiding many costs of permanent employment.
The model also shifts much of the business risk from companies to workers. Fuel, vehicle maintenance, fluctuating demand and income insecurity are largely borne by the worker, often without adequate social security. Thus, while companies gain scale and lower costs, workers lose bargaining power and stable incomes.
Casualisation causes worker distress and insecurity multiplies.
One in Four Get Poor Wages
For India’s ambition of becoming a $30-trillion economy by 2047, Gen Z cannot remain either unemployed or trapped in a precarious informal economy with low productivity.
Construction spendings in railways, road and demolitions of office buildings cost about Rs 2 lakh crore. Various companies profit but does it help the workers? Why not stop it?
If India fails to create enough productive jobs as its working-age population peaks around 2030, the demographic dividend could gradually turn into a demographic burden, leaving a larger ageing population with inadequate income and social security by 2055.
The problem is compounded by low wages and underemployment, with nearly one in four casual workers reportedly earning below the statutory minimum wage, while many educated and skilled young people remain trapped in insecure or low-paying work. India’s recovery also risks becoming increasingly K-shaped, with wealth and capital gains concentrated at the top while vulnerable sections, including SCs, STs and OBCs, remain heavily dependent on casual and informal employment.
Illusory Jobs, Real Insecurity
There is shift from permanent, regular employment to temporary, contract, casual, gig and other forms of insecure work. It allows companies greater advantage in managing costs and labour, but transfers much of the uncertainty and risk from employers to workers.
Casualisation reduces employers’ fixed labour costs but shifts the risks of unemployment, illness, accidents and fluctuating incomes onto workers. It weakens bargaining power, suppresses wages, social security, and deepens inequality.
The casualisation creates the illusion of employment while creating a euphemism for insecurity and unfairly low wages.
The Ire & Distress
The employment crisis is also placing growing pressure on household finances. Families are spending heavily on higher education in the hope of securing better jobs, but when education fails to translate into employment, these investments become a financial burden, weakening household savings and, in turn, domestic consumption.
Persistent youth unemployment can also fuel distress migration, overcrowding in urban settlements and social tensions, while a large pool of educated but idle young people can become a source of labour and industrial unrest.
The burden is particularly severe for women. Urban female Gen Z unemployment is estimated at 22.6 percent, while more than 27 percent remain confined exclusively to domestic duties, keeping a substantial part of India’s potential workforce outside productive economic activity.
Although the female labour force participation rate rose to 41.7 percent in 2023–24, women continue to face barriers such as childcare responsibilities, limited mobility, workplace safety concerns and inadequate employment opportunities.
Employment opportunities also vary sharply across states, with unemployment reportedly ranging from 8.3 percent in Goa to just 0.9 percent in Gujarat, reflecting wide differences in industrialisation, investment, infrastructure and labour absorption capacity.
The central challenge, therefore, is not merely to create more jobs but to generate enough decent, productive, stable and formal employment for preventing a generation from becoming unemployed, underemployed and insecure workers.
To fully realize demographic dividend by 2047 must advance the target to 2033, India must align educational output with dynamic labour market demands, transitioning Gen Z from informal precarity to secure, high-quality, and tech-resilient formal employment. Would it happen or be a pipedream?
Wednesday, August 26, 2026