The fact is youth unemployment has a household cost

India’s youth unemployment crisis is usually told through a single statistic: how many young people cannot find work. The latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS 2025) reports an unemployment rate of 14.8% among 18-29 year-olds, rising to 29.4% among those who are tertiary educated (with a diploma, graduate or post-graduate levels). The broader picture is larger than the unemployment rate alone suggests. Unemployment as a measure captures only those people who are not working but are actively seeking or available for work. It excludes those outside the labour force, including those who may have stopped looking for work, a group that may include many young women. Against the narrower measure of unemployment, the broader picture is considerably larger: 40.1% of tertiary-educated youth are neither in employment, education nor training, commonly referred to as NEET.