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The internet has so much information that it is possible to find ‘evidence’ for seemingly contradictory positions for almost any hypothesis. Google ‘manpower shortage in India’ and you will get dozens of articles and studies around it. Ditto if you type ‘unemployment in India’. If you visit industry conferences, lack of manpower is a commonly cited problem among the list of challenges. If you speak to people in the job market, there seem to be no jobs. This is not a contradiction really, but more a mismatch between the skill sets that people have to offer versus what is required. This situation is not peculiar to India either.

In 2017 I had plans to start a vocational training school and had approached the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS, Mumbai) as they were one of the partners of the government for this purpose. They shared with me their operating model and sample agreements and after studying those I decided not to go ahead. I had not intended to get rich from the venture but I realised that even breaking even would be a struggle at best, and without institutional support it was not making much sense.

Unemployment and Economy is an ocean of a subject and it is not possible to discuss everything in a post. In the following points I have listed my thoughts specifically about why these gaps exist and not unemployment in general.

1. At a philosophical level, it is very unlikely that an equilibrium will ever be attained between what people want to do and what the job market requires. Working requires that you set aside some aspirations and cater to ground realities. Very few people are able to make a sustainable living out of following their passions. Unless, as some people claim - ‘from the age of 6 I wanted to be a chemical engineer’.
   
   
2. Not enough career counselling. Neither the supply, nor the demand. We don’t like taking help on such matters. We feel we know best, our friends know best, parents know best and all of us put together will put me on the right track. Just go with the flow and it will happen.
   
   
3. Learning stops after college. Apart from folks in IT who feel the pressure to update their skills, I don’t see people trying to acquire new skills at all. Now things are changing a bit due to easy access to quality online education.
   
   
4. Lopsided belief that a job will teach us everything that is required and all college education is useless, and consequently identical. This detrimental belief has led many to graduate in subjects in which they actually have no hope or interest in making a career, only to face the harsh reality that they are lacking employable skills.
   
   
5. Lack of leadership by higher education institutes in determining what kind of skills the economy of the future requires. When I was pursuing higher studies I did not study a single subject that could be called ‘futuristic’ (for lack of a better word). All subjects catered to the current employment market. There was no cutting edge research on the economy of the future and how to prepare the students for it. Maybe things are better now.
   
   
6. Continuing lack of awareness in rural areas about what constitutes a job worthy education. When my restaurant was still running, my chef asked me if I could find a job for his ‘better educated’ younger brother who he believed was languishing as a ‘captain’ in some shady bar in the outskirts of Bangalore. It turns out that his brother had done B.Ed (Bachelor in education, the path followed for becoming a teacher). I did not have the heart to tell him that as a teacher he would make less than what he was making as a captain in a bar, especially when he told me that he had taken a loan to put him through the B.Ed.

I have deliberately excluded well known systemic issues such as lack of economic growth, poor quality education and a mindset that values degrees over skills. That last one again is not peculiar to India and I hope things will change in the next decade. I hear a lot of talk around it but very little adoption by corporates.

Thoughts, opinions and suggestions welcome

#2 is a big deal.

Career counselling is not a discussion you necessarily need to have with a career consultant. Or need to do when you’re ready to pass out of college.

Realistically, if we can bring this into our culture -

.... family talking to kids about what are career plans and bringing in friends and extended family to help out.

.....talking to kids who have completed the majority of their schooling (9,10,11,12) about type of careers, how to work towards them, handing off to an export to hand hold kids who have advanced their thoughts/plans towards a particular skill set , you’d also be able to address #1 (doing something you like doing, atleast to begin with).

.... for kids who aren’t lucky enough to finish school, showing a realistic set of careers they can do( a trade, a skill somebody’d pay for).

"Manpower shortage" is a catchall term that has different meanings, to the HR of corporations it just means they don't want to pay the high cost of skilled labor available in plenty, they simply want mediocre labor at low prices, which is scarce. Contrary to popular folklore, HR does not want the best people, just people who barely get the job done.

This is also a function of what mandate HR has from the CXOs. In some companies the HR function is an afterthought, just as financial reporting and compliance are seen as annoyances which are best outsourced to CA firms.

There is a genuine skills shortage in some industries. However, in India, there is a genuine dearth of good jobs. It is very easy to blame the education standards etc. without taking into account the fact that many students who graduate from Indian colleges manage to find a job in good companies with just a 1 year master's program abroad- and you don't learn much in even the best 1 year graduate programs, it is most commonly a ticket to participate in the job market abroad. The same people won't get any jobs in India quite often.

Try talking to an IIT MTech graduate some day and you will find that even they struggle to get a decent job that pays above 40 to 50k INR a month which is the basic salary you need to live a middle class life in Bangalore or Mumbai. These IIT grads can compete with the best internationally. I am saying that because I have done my post graduation abroad and have noticed that many of these MTech students were forced to go out to do a PhD in the top 5 universities globally because there's no demand for skilled labor in their fields in India. Think about it- except a handful of companies in the pharmaceutical space, and a few government research organizations, is there really any development work that's done by Indian corporates? These few organizations cannot absorb even the cream of the talent pool every year. A tiny city like Singapore has more development and research jobs than India, and most of it is government sponsored.

Vocational training has been going on for decades at the ITIs. Again, contrary to the popular perception that these institutions are not good, they actually do a decent job at educating people. But what after that? Even the best welder or plumber in India won't earn more than 20k a month on a contract job. Even if you graduate with the requisite skills and knowledge, you won't be able to put bread on your table. And this creates a vicious cycle because many ITI graduates end up working as drivers etc. to make ends meet, hence cannot upskill themselves.

I used to believe this narrative that people don't want to work, there's a skills shortage etc. But 2 years on a factory shopfloor in one of the top companies in India made me realize that the truth is often very different. Technical people are not given the professional respect and remuneration they deserve, especially at the ground level. That's why no one wants to become a carpenter, painter, electrician and welder here.

I was referring more to education at primary and secondary levels, where dropout rates are high due to various socio economic factors as well as poor quality of teaching. Again, the teachers too are poorly paid, don't get their salaries on time, have little motivation and the vicious cycle continues.

This is an important point. All of us at some point are guilty of pushing down wages when we insist on the cheapest, the common feeling being 'why to pay more when it is available at lower cost and feel stupid about it'.

Superb topic :thumbs up. Thanks for sharing!

Good list, but you have missed out on one of the most important = the candidate itself! Laziness and / or a disinclination to learn are very serious problems affecting a healthy % of the masses in India. Everyone wants to make money, but not everyone wants to put in the sheer effort (working, learning, discipline) that is required.

As much as I didn't want to, I had to recently let go of a fellow I'd recruited in an entry-level position. He had started a little before the Covid-19 lockdown and even then, I could see that all he thought about was how to do the least amount of work, was terribly lazy and ready with his bag to leave at 1745 (our office shuts at 1800 hours). No one comes to office anymore, he can't work from home and I didn't want him to sleep hungry. So in Mar - May, I paid him for food etc for his family.

Come June, I had another role for him. We spoke and agreed. Guess what? He doesn't turn up. Repeatedly. He gave me 5 dates and just didn't turn up. I checked if there was any personal problem (he was another employee's reference & distant relative), but no, there was none. The dude is chilling @ home! His wife does odd jobs & apparently that is enough to keep a roof over their head & food on the table.

Now, what do you do about a fellow who doesn't want to work, and doesn't want to learn? Trust me, this is a very real problem in entry-level jobs. I have faced this issue innumerable times with peons / office boys, office admins, telemarketers etc.

This is actually among the top 3 reasons. I have encountered this numerous times, mainly among blue collar workers but amongst others also. Initially I used to think it's a result of lack of confidence, family environment and other factors and used to give them benefit of the doubt. But I would find them remarkably smart when it came to other matters not related to work. I just tell myself that perhaps some people are at peace with their world and I shouldn't get worked up about it and let them be.

I might sound a bit OT, but I want to put forward what could potentially be relevant points to the discussion. None of the below will make sense independently, but have to be looked upon collectively.

The below is more specific to those who are " lucky" enough to have a good education but are wasted potential

1) Smart work vs Hard work : Over usage of jargons like " Smart work > Hard work" has eroded the belief of " Efforts " = " Rewards " . Result : People are always looking forward for shortcuts to earn money/ degree

2) High earning middle class parents : All of a sudden education in US / Canada is a Stone's throw away courtesy parent's life savings or a big fat education loan

3) Mobile addiction - Might sound completely irrelevant here, but give me the benefit of doubt . The innumerable number of apps / games / social media has made the most important asset of a nation - " Youth " the most lazy, laid back, demotivated citizens.
I see my own cousins being hooked on to mobile screens for 3 - 4 hours minimum with no interest to learn life skills ( Car driving- I volunteer to teach them everyday but nada, basic household repairs ), no motivation to maintain a healthy lifestyle, no time invested in keeping oneself fit and the worst of all no inclination towards " Current affair " - they just don't know what is going on in the country - Politically, economically

Sorry for the rant !

IMO, This behaviour is linked to the top points OP listed. “Finding meaning in the work that you do”. People always want to be involved in something, and hopefully with someone. One peon vs the other.

Akin to me in school and not enjoying Social Studies - it made no sense to me, but did to others.

It's not the candidates fault entirely, neither the recruitment fault. The problem lies somewhere in between. The issue is with ongoing automation, repetitive skills are being automated and the skills in demand involve human thinking, creativity and ones involved in more optimization. The world has changed and how, we live in a third world hellhole but constantly watch and learn on lifestyles in the first world. This creates a huge mismatch between reality and expectations. This combined with the internet's sweet song that everything can be obtained by zero hard work has created a generation of YouTube stars and wannabe YouTube stars who seem to make infinite money by shooting videos.

This is an important point. Even if one is not creating systems, one needs to know how to use systems as technology is penetrating every aspect of life. Case in point - delivery riders being comfortable with their apps and navigation maps, which itself requires some knowledge of English (at least presently).

To give an example, I had a cleaner in my restaurant who had been with me for quite some time. He was very ethical, honest and courteous and I thought it would be a good idea to give him an opportunity for moving up the ladder. I wanted to give him the responsibility of managing inventory, online orders and coordinating with delivery boys. But that required him being familiar with computers, of which he knew nothing. I was willing to train him at my cost but he wasn't interested. He soon outgrew his interest in cleaning work and left. After all its not a job someone does life long. He had no other skills and I hope he acquired new ones subsequently

There is a wide gap between industry and universities. In the west ( off we go now), its compulsory to have at least a 6 month industrial apprentice experience before you graduate. In most cases, they get absorbed into the same organization. In Germany its called as Diplomarbeit. I am not sure now but those days Engineering course in Germany ( diplom in German) used to be a 5 year integrated course with the student spending almost a year in an organization. This would give the student exposure to the industrial practices and also to acclimatize him/her to the various technical aspects of the industry that they are aspiring to be a part of. Some organizations are empowered to impart degrees on their own. For example Bosch and Siemens have their own programs.

On the other hand , Universities encourage industrial professionals to become lecturers and impart valuable hands on experience. The curriculum is concurrent with up to day tech being taught. The system of lecture is such that the man imparting the course would expect the student to read up on their own about basics while he would only impart industry know how. Universities also are cut throat on students who don't have the aptitude.

There are also some idiosyncratic country specific things like a MBA degree being scorned upon in Germany where they prefer a man with solid technical experience to slowly get into the managerial roles.

Now for the India bashing part : No such activity is encouraged here. I am talking only on technical education alone. I don't know about other fields like say Management, finance , service sectors and this is only about entry level graduates.

There is also the problem of parallel movement opportunities for experienced individuals which results in stagnation and employee burn out. Our industry itself is not known for innovation. I would go on and on ranting so i will stop here. This topic has been debated to death in all types of media.

I've been running my family business (Manufacturing of Engineering Components) for almost 25 yrs now, and I always say one thing about unemployment - there's no dearth of jobs for someone who is hardworking and dedicated.

The unemployed youth that you see wandering around the streets, simply don't have the sincerity or discipline to learn and progress in life. Ask any such young man about his preferred job and he'll tell you that he wants to get a job in a mall, so that he can spend his time in an air-conditioned environment. Data entry jobs, driver (chauffeur) are also highly preferred by many.

But the big question here is - What's the learning potential /possibility in such jobs? 5 - 10 yrs later, you'll still be a janitor or odd job man in the mall, or a driver doing the same routine as before.

On the other hand, there are tons of jobs in the manufacturing sector that can accommodate people with even basic literacy levels, but they need to have an open curious mind and an intense desire to learn things on the job.
People with such mindset will never be short of opportunities and will rise in life much more than the other category.
I myself employ many people who are barely literate, but have an astounding aptitude towards core engineering and are way better than many 'qualified engineers' out there.

I'm also saddened by the attitude of my fellow countrymen who don't have much respect about these people and their skills, just because they are the 'blue collar type' and not the 'white collar' officer.
Our country needs a lot more of these brave men, who have tons of grassroots intelligence but don't have the qualification or degree to show off to the world.

Manpower shortage is because everyone wants easy money - or money without having to do work / less work & mostly wont qualify for the job. This tendency unfortunately goes into their everyday activities as well, including their studies. They manage to get done with their education with minimal efforts (thank you deemed universities for producing all 90% / 9+ CGPA grads) and expect the same when they come out to join the workforce.

Unemployed - because they dont have the right skills & attitude
Manpower shortage - because they dont have the right skills & attitude

Both sides, i.e., demand & supply of workforce point back to the same problem!