Degrees of Disillusionment: Why India’s Young Graduates Are Losing Hope

Across India, there’s an entire education industry that builds middle class dreams, even among the less fortunate. English medium ‘convent’ schools abound in small towns and thousands of colleges and institutes churn out millions of graduates every year. For instance, in the past two years, India’s working age population increased by 41 million, while the number of graduates increased by 19 million.But these numbers hide a bitter reality: an increasing number of young people are losing hope that a college degree will give them a better life.Until recently, most middle class families considered a ‘graduation’ degree to be the key to future prosperity. Within the middle class, especially for males, it was seen as a golden ticket to a respectable job and a good marriage. So every year, millions of parents used to cut back on their own spending to send their children to college or a professional institute.Rent or Home Loan? For the Middle Class, It’s a Hard Choice Between the TwoAlmost always, a graduate wants a white-collar job. Otherwise, they might as well have started earning right after school. Graduates also tend to be more picky about the job offers they get, often holding out for placements with higher status and better pay. That's one reason why youth unemployment in India tends to be very high.Data collected by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows that out of every 100 jobseekers within the 20-24 years age group, nearly 50 are unemployed.As they get older, they start accepting jobs they would have otherwise rejected. So, the unemployment rate drops to 16 percent among jobseekers between 25-29 years of age, and then drops to single digits once they cross into the 30s.At that age, it becomes impossible to stand up against societal pressure and hold out for a better job. Young men are asked to marry and get a wife home to help the mother run the house, and then provide an ‘heir.’ Young women, meanwhile, face jibes about 'studying too much' and missing the marital bus.So, once they are in their late 20s, graduate or not, young people are compelled to accept whatever livelihood they can get.My own experiences with young people from lower-middle class backgrounds tells me that many are bitter about wasting their time chasing a graduate degree.I have met many young Uber drivers who say they would have been better off earning right after high school. I have also met delivery ‘partners’—you must have too—who are graduates but remain unemployed in their chosen fields.Two sets of data confirm this anecdotal evidence. The first is that graduate unemployment has steadily increased over the years. According to CMIE, unemployment rate among graduates averaged roughly 15 percent in the three years before Covid-19. In the three years since, it has climbed to an average of 19 percent.That is perhaps one reason, other than financial distress, that a larger proportion of young people are choosing not to go to college. Again, CMIE’s data tells us that in the three years since the Covid-19 lockdowns ended, graduates made up 9.7 percent of the overall workforce. That's a sharp decline from the three-year period before the pandemic, when 11.2 percent of the working population were graduates.How Middle Class Got Left Behind in India's Growth StoryThe biggest reason for this trend is the significant decline in white-collar jobs in India. The most reliable source for comparing this is the monthly Naukri Jobspeak reports, published by Naukri.com, India’s largest white-collar jobs portal. Naukri’s data shows that in 2024-25, white-collar hiring dropped by an average of 8 percent, compared to 2022-23. In the same period, the number of graduate jobseekers rose by 20 percent.The biggest drops came in the IT industry, which was once the largest provider of respectable white-collar jobs for middle class graduates. Within the sector, hiring in hardware and networking declined by 30 percent; in software and software services by 26 percent; and in business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology enabled services (ITEs) CRM, and transcription by 16 percent.The education sector, which is another major source of white-collar jobs, saw hiring decrease by 16 percent. A similar drop was seen in new hiring in retail. Fresh advertising, market relations, and public relations jobs also shrunk by seven percent over the past two years. Banking, financial services, and broking, which has been another crucial sector for white-collar jobseekers, also saw hiring shrink marginally.In contrary , sectors that cater to premium customers did better. Hiring in accounting and taxation—typically dealing with corporate or affluent clients—rose by 30 percent. The premium real estate boom led to a 25 percent increase in hiring in architecture and interior design, and a seven percent increase in real estate. With the rich spending more on restaurants and entertainment, white-collar hiring in media and entertainment has gone up by 14 percent, and by 9 percent in hospitality and travel. A big chunk of these new white-collar hires is likely to be in customer-facing functions, aimed at the affluent consumer. Such jobs are likely to go to young, well-heeled people from upper middle class families, who speak the language of the rich and understand their tastes. It is virtually impossible for the aspirational youth from lower middle class backgrounds to get these jobs.The slowdown in IT sector hiring has been the biggest blow to the dreams of middle class youth from smaller towns. IT jobs held the promise of future wealth and status. Not only have IT job opportunities shrunk, but pay packages have also remained stagnant. Today, a fresher in an IT firm is likely to earn less than a young Uber driver—despite spending their family’s savings on an expensive education.It is nobody’s contention that white-collar jobs are the only kind worth having. In most developed countries, traditional working-class jobs—plumber, fireman, factory worker, electrician—are not only well-paying, but are also treated with respect.That, unfortunately, is not true in India. It will take a generation for attitudes to change. Until that happens, the number one task facing policy makers is to deal with the anger and frustrations among young educated people, who are rapidly losing all hope of a better future. (The author was Senior Managing Editor, NDTV India & NDTV Profit. He tweets @Aunindyo2023. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)IT Jobs Can No Longer Be Seen as a Safe Bet for India's Middle Class. Period.

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Degrees of Disillusionment: Why India’s Young Graduates Are Losing Hope

An increasing number of young people are losing hope that a college degree will give them a better life.

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