UNDEREMPLOYMENT IN INDIA
The hymns of unemployment have already been enchanted in our growing economy from a long while and constructive attempts are being taken towards this issue consistently but there is something that has overpowered unemployment with a great pace in preceding few decades and that catastrophic disgrace is called UNDEREMPLOYMENT.
Where underemployment has given a nominal source of bread winning opportunity to the vulnerable job seekers, it has suppressed the creativity, efficiency, passion, dedication and capabilities of many on the other hand. But a million dollar question that arises is "Is underemployment a new unemployment? " I say no to this because I take the former as a far more serious concern than the latter.
According to me, unemployment is a condition where a person has unavailability of job but has a scope to get one which fits his skill set, qualification and desire provided he consistently improves his qualities and keep trying for an opportunity. Though, it might take comparatively longer span of time but will end up building a meaningful career that returns appreciable satisfaction, money and happiness to make the person feel well content for the rest of his life.
But if we talk about the condition of underemployment, the job seeker compromises a narrow path as his destiny and starts making his way towards it. Initially, it provides an illusion of being settled and employed but it takes no longer to display its true colours. There are many things that come into picture simultaneously like equity theory where employees compare relational satisfaction within interpersonal relationships within the firm and start perceiving the job to be under-delivering and this is where the seed of detachment from the work is sown.
According to an old adage, "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." But, underemployment deviates the person from his passion, dreams and desires to spend a lifeless professional life ahead.
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR UNDEREMPLOYMENT
In a so-called well established education system of India, we apparently, constrain ourself too much into a conventional paradigm of the society. We rarely follow our dreams and cast a path for ourself forecasting our goals. This results in detachment from our field in succeeding few years and we lose our passion and determination. Right after we get detached from our field, we end up taking the turn that the life makes and in most of the cases we become a victim of underemployment. You can't expect people to walk in your shoes and as vice-versa, even you can't walk in their shoes because if you do so, it means you are living their life, not yours. It has been learnt that youth are mostly hit by it because they are the one who are most vulnerable and susceptible to this. According to a survey, employees in the age limit of 20 - 29 are largest victim of underemployment due to the above reason.
And for underemployment, I cannot solely put the blame on job seekers as the technological companies in India which are assumed to be the blessings for our economy are playing a major role in mushrooming underemployment. As an instance, when IT companies hire a B.tech engineer or a M.tech engineer, the profile of work they are provided are almost same and even the initial CTC offered to them are not very different. Adding to it, many techies are put to paper work instead of coding, developing or testing that creates another atmosphere of hindrance to satisfaction. Though, employees still join and work there as we all know what is the condition of job market as it is said unanimously. However, I would like to strongly press a point here that jobs are sufficient but the employees with the required level of skill is lagging which is leading to unemployment and underemployment.
CONSEQUENCES OF UNDEREMPLOYMENT
There is a great cost that our country is paying off for this situation. Underemployment, when causes dissatisfaction among employees, they start finding an alternative way as they feel whatever comes next will at least be better than what they have been doing and this shoots up the attrition rate tremendously. The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill approach makes them resign and hence, all the training that they have been lately provided go to vain and the same has now to be imparted to their replacements. As a matter of fact,
- 40% of the current work force in India will quit their job in the next 6 months and
- Cost of hiring a new employee is 7 times more than retaining an old employee.
There is a survey of 2007 that shows the attrition rate in different sectors of employment:-
The cost of employee also adds up to some hidden costs. When employees resign from the company, productivity deteriorates for a period of time until the new joiner learns his part and this period can also be a threat of losing customer which can hamper the overall revenue as well.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
We talk about the tragic statistics of entrepreneurial success rate in India, but we need to give it a second thought over the grass root of its cause. In a country like India, if we start our career with an underemployed job and if we do not expertise in some specific domain, if we lack interest, dedication, creativity and zeal towards one thing, what kind of entrepreneur do we expect our people to become.
Hence, I find it very feasible to keep patience and to maintain the consistency of dedication in the starting few days of professional life and to catch a right profile that will flourish till eternity...
