Job creation demands precision planning
One promise sits at the top of every government’s to-do list in Jammu and Kashmir: jobs. Yet year after year, the numbers tell a stubborn story. The Union Territory’s unemployment rate has stayed well above the national average for six straight years, and the gap isn’t closing.
The data is stark. In 2024–25, J&K’s unemployment rate for those 15 and above was 6.7% against the country’s 3.5%. In 2023–24 it was 6.1% vs 3.2%; 2022–23 saw 4.4% vs 3.2%; 2021–22 was 5.2% vs 4.1%; 2020–21, 5.9% vs 4.2%; and 2019–20, 6.7% vs 4.8%.
Behind the percentages are people. Mission YUVA’s baseline survey in January last year found 4.73 lakh individuals, aged 18–50, who are not working but want to. This pool isn’t unskilled.
It includes 70,428 postgraduates, 98,466 graduates, 1,26,059 higher-secondary pass-outs, and 95,914 secondary-level candidates. Add 44,908 with middle-school education, 10,994 with primary schooling, and 24,594 illiterate persons, and the picture is clear: J&K has an educated workforce with nowhere to go.
This is a slow-burning crisis with long-term costs. Every convocation adds thousands to the job market, but absorption stays flat. As the Jammu and Kashmir Policy Institute notes, the core problem is a mismatch: degrees are growing faster than dignified jobs.
The economy still leans on seasonal work, low-wage services, and government posts that can’t keep pace. The result is frustration, migration, and wasted human capital. To its credit, the government isn’t idle. Mission YUVA, Mumkin, Tejaswini, and PMEGP push entrepreneurship, skilling, and start-ups. The stated goal is right: turn job seekers into job creators.
But on the ground, the shift feels minimal. A loan sanctioned isn’t a business sustained. Without market linkages, mentoring, and timely working capital, new units collapse within two years, adding to disillusionment.
Entrepreneurship can’t be the only engine. The UT needs what every lagging region needs: private investment and industrial depth. That means moving beyond handicrafts and horticulture into IT services, food processing, light manufacturing, pharma, and renewable energy – sectors that can hire in the hundreds, not ones and twos.
It means land banks with clear titles, single-window clearances that actually work in one window, reliable power, and freight subsidies that make the Valley competitive despite geography.
It also means fixing the skill gap honestly. A graduate without industry-relevant skills is still unemployable. Apprenticeship programs tied to guaranteed placements, not just certificates, should be scaled with private firms. Colleges must integrate paid internships and update curricula every two years based on employer feedback.
The government can’t do this alone. Banks must restructure collateral norms for first-generation entrepreneurs. Community leaders must destigmatize private jobs and blue-collar skilling. Large Indian corporates need to look at J&K as a talent base, not a CSR checkbox. And schools must counsel students toward sectors where jobs exist, not just degrees that sound impressive.
Schemes like Mission Youth are necessary but not sufficient. Success will be measured when a postgraduate doesn’t have to choose between leaving the Valley or driving a cab with an MBA.
It will be measured when a unit under Mumkin gets a second purchase order, not just a ribbon-cutting. JK’s youth bulge can be a dividend or a liability. Right now, with 4.73 lakh willing workers and an economy that can’t use them, it’s leaning the wrong way.
Reversing it demands more than intent. It demands capital, industry, and accountability – coordinated, not piecemeal. The clock isn’t friendly. Another year of 6.7% unemployment is not just a statistic. It’s a warning.
