India, April 16 -- Much of the recent public discussion on India's labour market has focused on women's employment patterns. Bucking previous trends, from 2017 onwards, their employment has increased significantly led by agricultural employment. But this is only one side of the equation. Less examined, though equally consequential, is the trajectory of young men: here too employment has risen, but the underlying structure follows a very different pattern. We draw from the latest State of Working India 2026 to discuss some of these in detail.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times....