Even after registering a remarkable gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of over 8 per cent in the financial year (FY) 2023-24, India will continue to struggle to create enough jobs for its growing workforce over the next ten years even if the economy registers a growth rate of 7 per cent, Citigroup Inc stated in a report.
As per the report, the country will need more concerted steps to match the demand and supply in the job market.
A 7 per cent growth rate will only help create eight to nine million jobs a year, which will fail to absorb the number of new entrants in the labour market, according to the bank’s economists Samiran Chakraborty and Baqar Zaidi. As per the estimates by Citi, to match the demand, India needs to create around 12 million jobs a year over the next 10 years.
The economists also highlighted the challenges of creating high-quality jobs. As per the official data, nearly 46 per cent of the country’s workforce is still employed in agriculture, even though the sector’s contribution to GDP is less than 20 per cent. In 2023, manufacturing accounted for nearly 11.4 per cent of the jobs which was lower than the 2018 level.
Citi’s economists have suggested a series of steps to boost jobs in India. Measures such as strengthening the manufacturing sector’s export potential along with filling up nearly one million government vacancies are required. In addition to consolidating multiple employment generation programs, India needs to extend incentives to attract foreign companies, the economists said.
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