For decades, the Indian youth dream followed a clear path: move out of farming, get a degree, and secure a stable job. The reality now is far different.
More women did farm jobs in 2023-24 compared to six years ago, even though they have made great strides in securing non-agriculture jobs over the decades. For men, particularly the young and educated, the job market does not have enough quality jobs or salary growth in the offing.
These are the findings from the State of Working India 2026 report—a comprehensive study on India’s labour market—by Azim Premji University. Mint explores in detail how India’s job market is tough for young women and tougher for young men.
Farm fallback
India’s long-running structural shift away from agriculture is undeniable. This is led by India’s youth aged 20-29, both men and women, who have exited the farm jobs at a rapid pace.
The only difference now is that while men have continued to exit agricultural jobs, women have re-entered the market between 2017-18 and 2023-24. Young women couldn’t escape the shift either, with the share of the young female workforce in agricultural jobs increasing to 49% in 2023-24 from 44% earlier.
Agriculture often acts as a fallback sector when other job opportunities dry up. The increase in women’s share in farm jobs reflects stress in the labour market, and that it has failed to create better opportunities for new women entrants.
“Although the increase in agricultural employment among young women is smaller than that observed for older women, it nonetheless represents the first reversal in the trajectory of structural transformation since 1993,” the report noted.
Horizontal shift
As moves away from agriculture—notwithstanding the recent increase in women’s presence—the question is where they are going.
The answer is less reassuring. For most workers, the exit from farms is not a step up, but a shift to largely informal and low-paying work. The fall in agriculture’s share has been mirrored largely by a rise in self-employment and casual labour.
For young men, the pattern is strikingly familiar. Construction, trade and transport remain the main destinations—sectors that absorb labour quickly, but offer little security or wage growth. Manufacturing jobs remain stagnant.
Fortunately, for women, the structural shift has been more satisfactory, with more workers entering manufacturing, particularly , and some entering the services sector. Overall, a majority of young women are now in non-agricultural jobs, though many of them are self-employed or have low-paid jobs.
Breaking barriers
For young women, the labour market is gradually opening up, signalling a structural shift in job choices. They are moving away from traditional sectors that once dominated female employment.
Jobs like tobacco processing, once a major employer of women, now see far lower participation from younger cohorts. Even in areas like health and education, the share of young women is lower than among older workers, pointing to a gradual move away from conventional roles.
In their place, new sectors are emerging. The gains are most visible in formal, skilled and manufacturing jobs. In research and development, the share of women’s participation has risen from 4.4% in 1983 to nearly 34% in 2023. In the information technology (IT) sector, young women now account for over 16% of the workforce.
Yet, these shifts remain limited in their ability to absorb workers at scale. A large share of women remain out of the labour market or continue to be concentrated in informal or self-employed roles, where earnings are lower, and job security is weak.
The degree doom
The biggest stress point in India’s labour market is among graduates. More people are getting highly educated, but the pathway from a degree to a stable job remains uncertain.
The report noted from a sample survey of young men that only 6.7% of those with a graduate degree or above secure permanent salaried roles within a year of their unemployment. Only 3.7% get white-collar jobs. When the level of jobs is lowered to any kind of employment, about 50% can secure jobs.
This still leaves roughly 40% unemployed and unable to find jobs. Unemployment numbers confirm that 39.3% of those with a graduate or higher degree are jobless under the age of 25; the figure for those between the ages of 25 and 29 is 20%.
At the same time, the share of young men in higher education fell from 38% in 2017 to 34% in late 2024, with a large number of them (72%) citing the need to support their household incomes as the reason.
Pay check
Not only are highly educated men struggling to get good-quality jobs, but they are also experiencing stagnation or decline in their salaries. Their monthly average inflation-adjusted salary was ₹19,573 in 2023-24, much lower than the recent peak of ₹21,383 in 2011-12.
Women with similar educational qualifications now earn nearly the same as men, at ₹18,829, but only posting a mild increase from ₹18,553 in 2011-12. While statistically the gender salary gap looks smaller, it simply is a result of a worsening situation for graduate men.
Even the advantage graduates hold over non-graduates has shrunk in recent years. Graduate men earn only ₹9,000 more monthly average salary than non-graduates, much lower than ₹12,000 in 2011-12. At the non-graduate level, the gender pay gap is very much visible. These problems reflect a mismatch in demand and supply in the labour market, particularly for young and highly-educated men.