Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President, Confederation of Indian Industry and Vice- Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, on Wednesday expressed concern about the country’s job market.

Lack of capital investments by the private sector, low consumption and low capacity utilisation could pose serious concern to the growth in job market.

“One of the biggest things we continue to grapple with is jobs. Close to 8-10 million youth are joining job market every year; with no capital investments coming in from private sector due to low consumption and low capacity utilisation, there is a serious concern,” Mittal said at the CII Eastern Region annual general meeting here today. According to a recent report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in February 2019 was 7.2 per cent, much higher than 5.9 per cent in February 2018 and 5 per cent in February 2017.

The country’s employment rate dropped sharply from 41.8 per cent in November 2017 to 39.5 per cent in December 2018. The employment rate stood at around 39.7 per cent in February 2019.

“For the last one year, India has been witness to, once again, the dreadful phenomenon of falling labour participation rates and rising unemployment rates,” the report said.

There are close to 300 million children in the age group of 6-16, and in another 10 years they will be joining the job market, Mittal said.

“Clearly, we need work right now. Starting vocational training from the school level is very good to make people employable. The technology is moving fast and disruptions are coming every five years. Industry and academia should come together and plan accordingly to make them future-ready,” he added.

Talking about the overall economy, Mittal said the first half of FY-19 went “well” after a long gap of two-to-three years of slow momentum. But, the third quarter had moderated and the fourth quarter will further taper down due to elections before “something positive” happens.

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