The number of young people in India who have stopped looking for work out of frustration has risen from 50 million in 2012 to 100 million, development economist Santosh Mehrotra said. The report, published on August 17, 2026, links the employment crisis to youth protests over alleged irregularities in government job examinations in Ranchi and the recent Gen Z protest in Delhi over the NEET question-paper leak.

Government data cited in the report put India’s working-age population at about one billion, with 670 million employed; 80 percent of unemployed people are young. Azim Premji University’s State of Working India 2026 report found unemployment among young graduates as high as 40 percent, while Gen Z unemployment was between 15 and 25 percent. Rathiin Roy said higher education no longer guarantees a good job, citing AI’s impact on information technology jobs and low manufacturing wages.

Experts said GDP growth has not produced jobs at a matching rate. Manufacturing’s share of GDP fell from about 17 percent in 2014-15 to 12 percent by 2024. Mehrotra said India needs about 12.5 million non-agricultural jobs annually but is creating roughly half that number. Of 16 million people trained over the past decade, only 15 percent found work, according to the report.