Top 10 Indian States With Lowest Youth Employment; Lakshadweep & Kerala Top The List

Despite being the fifth largest economy in the world, the unemployment rate among the youth in India paints a bleak picture about the persisting gaps in the labour market. A data published by Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) shows that unemployment rate in the country stagnated to 3.2% for 2023-24 with Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Kerala topping the list in the aforementioned category.

Alarmingly, the unemployment rate among youth stood at 10.2%, in which males accounted for 9.8% and females stood at 11%. The unemployment rate among women widened to 3.2% from 2.9% a year ago.

Glimpse on top 10 Indian states and union territories with highest unemployment rate among youths

Kerala

Though having the highest literacy rate in the country, Kerala fared poorly in terms of providing employment to its youths, where unemployment rate stood at 29.9%. Female unemployment rate stood at a staggering 47.1% while males accounted for 19.3%.The state in fact trails behind several northern and northeastern states in terms of worker-population ratio (WPR), which tells the percentage of people employed in the population.

Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Lakshadweep topped the overall list as the total unemployment rate stood at 36.2% where female unemployment stood at 79.7% as compared to 26.2% among males. Notably, the union territory has the highest unemployment rate for those aged between 15-29. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Andaman and Nicobar Islands stood at 33.6% placing it second in the list.

Nagaland

Nagaland reported an equitable landscape of unemployment in the state, with males and males accounting for 27.9% and 26.6%, respectively. The overall unemployment in the state clocked to 27.4%

Manipur

The overall unemployment rate in the state stood at 22.9%, in which unemployment among females accounted for 27.5%, whereas among males it stood at 19.9%.

Ladakh

The union territory reported an overall unemployment rate of 22.2% in which the gap between both the genders widened significantly. While the unemployment rate among males stood at 11.4%, among females it clocked at 38.3%.

Arunachal Pradesh

The overall unemployment in the state stood at 20.9% with male unemployment at 21.9% and female unemployment at 19.6%. Notably, a fifth of youth is unemployed in the state, which is already struggling with labour market challenges.

Goa

Despite being a tourism-driven economy, the unemployment rate in the state stood at 19.1% with females accounting for 31% as compared to males (13.25%), thereby throwing light on gender-specific barriers to employment in the state.

Punjab

The state reported an unemployment rate of 18.8% in which the unemployment rate among females stood at 31% while among males it stood at 16.7%.

Andhra Pradesh

Ranked 10 in the list, the unemployment rate in the state stood at 17.5%, in which female unemployment rate stood at 19.7% while males accounted for 16.4%. Though the gap between both the genders is narrow, the overall youth unemployment figures reflect the mismatch of skills in the state’s labour market.

What’s the current status of India’s labour force participation rate (LFPR)?

India’s labour force participation rate (LFPR) stood at 60.1% in 2023-24 as compared to 57.9% in 2022-23, in which female LFPR soared to 41.7% from 37% while male LFPR increased from 78.5% to 78.8%.

How to fix the problem of unemployment in the country?

In a bid to compensate the influx of new labour market entrants, Citigroup Inc. indicated that India has to create close to 12 million jobs each year over the period of next decade