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@article{206299,
        author = {Sripad},
        title = {Reducing Unemployment in India A Research-Based Analysis of Structural Problems and Evidence-Backed Solutions},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {2},
        pages = {805-815},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=206299},
        abstract = {India's labour market presents an apparent paradox: a low headline unemployment rate sits alongside an acute crisis of graduate joblessness, weak formal-sector job creation despite strong GDP growth, and a female workforce whose rising participation appears driven substantially by economic distress rather than opportunity. This paper synthesizes official labour-force data (the Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2025-26), institutional and academic research — including the Azim Premji University State of Working India 2026 report, evaluations of MGNREGA and Skill India, and a J-PAL field experiment — and comparative international evidence from Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam to diagnose the structural roots of India's unemployment problem and propose a phased, fiscally realistic set of solutions.
Four root causes are identified: stagnant manufacturing employment despite decades of GDP growth (“jobless growth”); a severe education–industry skills mismatch that concentrates joblessness among the educated rather than the illiterate; chronic credit starvation in the MSME sector that employs the largest share of India's non-farm workforce; and a rural economy that continues to absorb surplus and distress-driven labour, particularly among women, rather than releasing it into higher-productivity work. Drawing on evaluations of MGNREGA, PMKVY/Skill India, the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, Startup India, and the newly implemented Four Labour Codes (2025), alongside international lessons on vocational training, export-led industrialization, and experimentally verified drivers of female labour supply, the paper proposes a sequenced roadmap: low-cost near-term reforms; medium-term structural shifts; and a long-term commitment to raising manufacturing's employment share and treating labour intensive public services as a legitimate jobs engine.},
        keywords = {},
        month = {July},
        }