Skilling can help India prepare its workforce for future in an AI-centric world, says Economic Survey 2025

Employment outlook Economic Survey 2024-25

India needs to prioritise education and skill development to equip its workforce in world that is moving fast to take advantage of a world where there is rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence, the Economic Survey released on the eve of the Budget on January 31 said.

"By capitalising on the global infancy of AI, India has the opportunity to prepare its labour force for a future defined by collaboration between human and machine intelligence. The survey in its previous release had highlighted that economy needs to create 7.9 million jobs between now and 2030 to accommodate the growing workforce," the survey noted.

India’s job trajectory has improved despite growth not performing up to the mark, as per results of government surveys.

Data from the periodic labour force survey shows that India’s urban unemployment rate declined further to 6.4 percent in the second quarter of the current fiscal compared with 6.6 percent in the previous quarter.

While male unemployment declined only slightly to 5.7 percent from 5.8 percent in the previous quarter, female unemployment in urban areas declined from 9 percent to 8.4 percent.

This decline was accompanied by a rise in female labour force participation and increased proportion of people employed in regular salaried work.

This change is also evident in the data for social security schemes. Data released earlier this month showed that in the first eight months of the year, subscriptions to big social security schemes, the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme and Employees’ State Insurance Scheme were over 4 percent higher compared with the previous year.

Female employment in the formal workforce using new registrations to social security schemes as a proxy, rose faster than male registrations.

The survey also called for Ease of Doing Business 2.0 reforms to push for more skilling initiatives for women and better working conditions to improve female labour force participation.

"Labour laws intended to protect the rights of women workers have, more often than not, discouraged hiring by creating systemic barriers to their entry into the workforce," the survey noted.