India must create 78.5 lakh jobs annually till 2030 to meet demand

India needs to create around 78.5 lakh jobs in the non-farm sector on an average every year till 2030 to meet the requirement of a rapidly increasing workforce, according to the Economic Survey for the fiscal year 2023-’24, or FY24, which was presented in the Lok Sabha a day before the Union Budget.

When Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents Budget 2024 for FY25 on July 23 in the Lok Sabha, job generation will be among the primary issues of interest for Indians.

The survey notes that growth of the economy is not just about generating jobs, but also about livelihood and, along with the Centre and state governments, the private sector would have to actively work at meeting the challenge. More than jobs, the survey adds, economic growth is about generating livelihood, too.

“In terms of financial performance, the corporate sector has never had it so good,” the survey says, boosting the assessment with data drawn from over 33,000 companies in India that shows profit before taxes nearly quadrupled for these firms between FY20 and FY23.

“The nominal GDP grew 9.6 per cent y-o-y (year-on-year) to Rs 295-lakh crore,” the survey says, but the hiring process “hardly kept up with it”. The survey adds that “it is in the interest of companies to step up hiring and worker compensation”.

The survey estimates that around 78.5 lakh jobs have to be created annually within the Indian economy to meet demands although everyone in the workforce age will not necessarily seek a job, as many would be self-employed, too. According to the survey’s prediction, the share of the farm sector as a generator of jobs would drop to around 25 per cent by 2047 from its 2023 share of 45.8 per cent.

“The Indian economy needs to generate an average of nearly 78.5 lakh jobs annually until 2030 in the non-farm sector to cater to the rising workforce,” the survey concludes.

Among suggestion the survey provides to meet the job demand is adding boost to programmes such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, the PM MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel) Scheme, and the MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Scheme.