This study examines long-term trends in the labour market outcomes of young urban female graduates in India. Using nationally representative employment data, we find that a rise in the adjusted labour force participation rate of young educated women (15–29 years) between 1999 and 2000 and 2011–12 was not accompanied by a corresponding improvement in their access to suitable employment opportunities. We provide evidence of the inability of the labour market to effectively absorb the increasing shares of higher qualified young urban females into formal regular jobs. Further, a gendered comparison of trends depicts the presence of continuing gender discrimination. In such a scenario, the discouraging effects may either keep many educated young women in a state of unemployment or result in their withdrawal from the labour force.
AbrahamV. (2013) ‘Missing Labour or Consistent “De-Feminisation”?’, Economic & Political Weekly, 48(31): 99–108.
2.
AfridiF., DinkelmanT. & MahajanK. (2018) ‘Why Are Fewer Married Women Joining the Work Force in Rural India? A Decomposition Analysis over Two Decades’, Journal of Population Economics, 31(3): 783–818.
3.
AndresL.A., DasguptaB., JosephG., AbrahamV. & CorreiaM. (2017) Precarious Drop: Reassessing Patterns of Female Labor Force Participation in India. Technical Report. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
4.
BairagyaI. (2018) ‘Why Is Unemployment Higher Among the Educated?’, Economic & Political Weekly, 53(7): 43–51.
5.
BrownS., RobertsJ. & TaylorK. (2011) ‘The Gender Reservation Wage Gap: Evidence from British Panel Data’, Economics Letters, 113(1): 88–91.
6.
ChaudharyR. & VerickS. (2014) Female Labour Force Participation in India and Beyond. ILO Working Paper No. 994867893402676. New Delhi: International Labour Organization (ILO).
7.
ChowdhuryS. (2011) ‘Employment in India: What Does the Latest Data Show?’, Economic & Political Weekly, 46(32): 23–6.
8.
DasM. & DesaiS. (2003) Why Are Educated Women Less Likely to Be Employed in India? Testing Competing Hypotheses. Washington, DC: Social Protection, World Bank.
9.
DevS.M. & VenkatanarayanaM. (2011) Youth Employment and Unemployment in India. Working Paper No. WP-2011–009. Mumbai: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.
10.
EapenM. (2004) Women and Work Mobility: Some Disquieting Evidences from the Indian Data (No. 358). Trivandrum: Centre for Development Studies.
11.
FletcherE., PandeR. & MooreC. (2017) Women and Work in India: Descriptive Evidence and a Review of Potential Policies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
12.
GautierP.A., Van den BergG.J., Van OursJ.C. & RidderG. (2002) ‘Worker Turnover at the Firm Level and Crowding out of Lower Educated Workers’, European Economic Review, 46(3): 523–38.
13.
GhaiS. (2018) The Anomaly of Women’s Work and Education in India. Working Paper No. 368. New Delhi: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).
14.
GhoseA.K. (2004) ‘The Employment Challenge in India’, Economic & Political Weekly, 39(48): 5106–16.
15.
GhoseA.K. (2016) India Employment Report 2016. New Delhi: Oxford University Press for The Institute for Human Development.
16.
KannanK.P. & RaveendranG. (2012) ‘Counting and Profiling the Missing Labour Force’. Economic & Political Weekly, 47 (6): 77–80.
17.
KapsosS., SilbermannA. & BourmpoulaE. (2014) Why is Female Labour Force Participation Declining so Sharply in India?ILO Research Paper No. 10. Geneva: International Labour Organization (ILO).
18.
KlasenS. & PietersJ. (2012) Push or Pull? Drivers of Female Labor Force Participation during India’s Economic Boom. Discussion Paper No. 6395. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
19.
LahotiR. & SwaminathanH. (2016) ‘Economic Development and Women’s Labor Force Participation in India’, Feminist Economics, 22(2): 168–95.
20.
MammenK. & PaxsonC. (2000) ‘Women’s Work and Economic Development’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4): 141–64.
21.
MathewS.S. (2015) ‘Falling Female Labour Force Participation in Kerala: Empirical Evidence of Discouragement?’, International Labour Review, 154(4): 497–518.
22.
MehrotraS. & SinhaS. (2017) ‘Explaining Falling Female Employment during a High Growth Period’, Economic & Political Weekly, 52(39): 54–62.
23.
MitraA. & VerickS. (2013) Youth Employment and Unemployment: An Indian Perspective. New Delhi: ILO.
24.
NaiduS.C. (2016) ‘Domestic Labour and Female Labour Force Participation’, Economic & Political Weekly, 51(44/45): 101–8.
25.
RangarajanC., KaulP.I. & Seema (2011) ‘Where Is the Missing Labour Force?’, Economic & Political Weekly, 46(39): 68–72.
26.
SanghiS. & SrijaA. (2014) Youth Unemployment in India. Focus of the Month. New Delhi: Confederation of Indian Industries. URL (consulted 15August2021), from https://www.ies.gov.in/pdfs/sunita-sanghi-and-a-srija.pdf
27.
SinhaP. (2013) Combating Youth Unemployment in India. New Delhi: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Department for Global Policy and Development.
28.
TayalD. & PaulS. (2021a) ‘Labour Force Participation Rate of Women in Urban India: An Age-Cohort-Wise Analysis’, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 64(3): 565–93.
29.
TayalD. & PaulS. (2021b) ‘Discouraged Worker Effect and Labor Market Behavior of Urban Married Women’, Asian Development Review, 38(2): 93–122.
30.
VerhaestD., BogaertE., DereymaekerJ., MestdaghL. & BaertS. (2016) Crowding Out in the Labour Market: Do Employers Lend a Hand? (No. 9654). Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
31.
VerickS. (2018) The Puzzles and Contradictions of the Indian Labour Market: What Will the Future of Work Look Like? (No. 11376). Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
