For nearly a lakh matric pass-outs in Odisha who virtually remained outside the loop of State’s higher secondary education stream of their no fault, getting a job here is proving an Achilles’ hill. The scramble for a gainful employment for this vast number looks pronounced when a whopping around 70,000 of them have registered in the recently launched National Employment/Career Centre by the Union Government. Though the number of jobseekers in Bihar and Chhattisgarh are almost equivalent to Odisha, matriculate jobseekers from Odisha outnumber that from the two States thereby indicating the enormity staring at Odisha.
Post launch of the online centralised employment exchange this year, Odisha saw registration of a whopping around 1.19 lakh jobseekers in the single month of June alone. And, rate of registration after the initial rush has been around seven every day. By October- end the number has swelled up to over 1,205 lakh.
Another around 10 per cent job-seekers are only higher secondary pass outs. The figures show around 75 per cent of unemployed in Odisha are either matriculates or of plus- 2 level only. Moreover, the State seems to have failed this vast number of labour force as they were denied access to higher education in Odisha.
Sample the skewed dynamics. When over 4.5 lakh qualified the matric exam in Odisha in 2015, only around 3 lakh could join the higher secondary stream. Similarly, of the over 2.7 lakh plus-two pass-outs this year, only around 2 lakh could get admission in the degree-level education in Odisha. Reason: Non-availability of seats. Moreover, reports show this denial of access to higher education hits across the caste divide. The figures underline how far the higher education loop in Odisha is exclusive and how it gets skewed when it comes to job hunting.
Interestingly, State’s headquarters district Khurda leads the pack in the State with over 8,000 matriculates seeking jobs. This is so when the district in the State has the largest fleet of employers numbering around 5,200. Tribal district Mayurbhanj follows Khurda. The enormity of unemployment seems all pervasive as industrial hubs like Baleswar and Sundergarh also saw maximum jobseekers with a rank of 4th and 6th slots respectively among the 30 districts.
How the job-race in Odisha is frightening is evidenced by the fact that when State saw around 6,000 odd job-opportunities last year, jobseekers hovered over 1.2lakh. Significantly, acuteness of joblessness here could be explained by the fact of mere 2.7 per cent growth rate in employment per year in the last decade against over 3 per cent growth in labour force participation rate (lFPR). In contrast, nationally the lFPR grew by mere 2.5 per cent, whereas the growth rate of employment was 4.25 per cent.