A study of youth unemployment and Labour force participation in Odisha

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Date

2017

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Central University of Punjab

Abstract

This study attempts to explore the recent trends and patterns of youth unemployment, sectoral employment patterns and the factors influencing youth labour force participation in Odisha. This study also attempts to project the size and composition of labour force and sectoral employments by 2019-2020 to know the size of demand-supply gap and hence to suggest appropriate policy measures. This study is based on both secondary and primary data. The major sources of secondary data are NSS (various rounds) and Census of India. NSS data is used to calculate various development statistics, whereas census population data is used to adjust the NSS estimates and obtain absolute figures. Moreover, a primary survey is conducted in Balasore district of Odisha to explore the employability pattern of ITI pass-outs. The major findings of the study suggest that youth unemployment is increasing over the last three decades in Odisha. It is high among the students who passed the secondary and above level of education. The unemployment rate among ITI pass-outs is also quite high. The unemployment rate among ITI pass-outs is higher than that of general education pass outs. The falling trend of agriculture employment due to mechanisation on one hand and non-availability of jobs in industry and service sectors on the other hand are responsible for high unemployment in Odisha. Within non-farm sector, the sub sectors like construction, labour intensive manufacturing (basic and fabricated metal, plastic products food and beverages, wood and paper products, and textile and apparel) and within service sector, subsectors like arts and entertainment, retail trade, transportation and storage, and education are deriving employment growth in recent years. vi Furthermore, this study finds that poverty and household income distress are playing an important role in the process of youth labour force participation in Odisha From the demand and supply projection of labour force, it can be concluded that the demand for labour would increase by (at most in the best possible scenario) by 4.5 lakhs per annum, whereas the supply of labour would likely to increase by 6.5 lakhs per annum. Hence, a gap of 2 lakhs per annum would be generated within labour market in Odisha. Therefore, in this context, it is suggested that the policy measure that focuses on growth of manufacturing sector along with development of social sector including education and health sectors would have greater potential for generating employment opportunities. And thereby it would help sustain the growth of jobs and the structural transformation process which started during 2004-05 in Odisha.

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Keywords

Unemployment, labour force participation, Vocational education, Skill development, Youths and Odisha

Citation

Pattayat, Shiba Shankar (2017) A study of youth unemployment and Labour force participation in Odisha