{"id":202487,"date":"2026-06-08T09:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=202487"},"modified":"2026-06-08T09:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:50:04","slug":"unemployment-explodes-in-iiojk-as-25000-graduates-yearly-only-13-in-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2026\/06\/08\/unemployment-explodes-in-iiojk-as-25000-graduates-yearly-only-13-in-workforce.html","title":{"rendered":"Unemployment explodes in IIOJK as 25,000 graduates yearly, only 13% in workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Srinagar: Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing exploding unemployment as 25,000 students graduate every year from colleges and universities, yet only 13% of them feature in the territory\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n

According to Kashmir Media Service, data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2023-24 shows graduate representation in IIOJK\u2019s workforce is abysmally low, while the overall unemployment rate stands at 6.7% \u2014 nearly double India\u2019s 3.5% national average.<\/p>\n

Officials said thousands complete postgraduate, professional and technical courses annually, but most degree holders remain unemployed, underemployed, or forced into jobs that do not require higher education.<\/p>\n

Official records reveal nearly 31% of the territory\u2019s registered unemployed are graduates and postgraduates. Experts attribute the crisis to limited industrialisation, a weak organised private sector that accounts for less than 3% of total employment, and a mismatch between qualifications and market needs.<\/p>\n

Between 58-67% of workers in IIOJK are self-employed in agriculture, small retail and family-run enterprises due to scarcity of formal salaried jobs. The situation is direr for educated women. Unemployment among women aged 15-29 ranges between 46-53%, with urban female unemployment at 20-28% compared to just 4.6% for males.<\/p>\n

Many remain confined to unpaid family work due to lack of opportunities. With over 77,000 gazetted and non-gazetted posts lying vacant in government departments, economists warn that without urgent industrial growth, private investment and skill-market alignment, the gap between rising educational attainment and job absorption will only widen further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Srinagar: Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing exploding unemployment as 25,000 students graduate every year from colleges and universities, yet only 13% of them feature in the territory\u2019s workforce. According to Kashmir Media Service, data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2023-24 shows graduate representation in IIOJK\u2019s workforce is abysmally low, while the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-occupied-jammu-and-kashmir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2026\/06\/unemployment-14.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202489,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202487\/revisions\/202489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}