India faces a shortage of a skilled workforce in many sectors, Union Minister of Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya said on Monday.

Mandaviya, who is also the Minister of Youth Affairs, said that due to this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on skill development in the Union Budget presented this year. The minister made the remarks at the Impact With Youth Conclave 2024 in Ahmedabad.

“On one side, we want work, but on the other hand, there is a huge requirement for skilled manpower,” Mandaviya said. “For example, there is a huge crisis of skilled manpower in the automobile sector. Similarly, there are jobs for plumbers and masons, but there is an absence of skilling.”

The minister said that the government has allocated Rs 2 crore to create 4 crore jobs in the next five years. “The government has also planned a scheme to provide internships to 1 crore youths in premium companies, he added.

Mandaviya said that Modi has set a goal for India to be a developed country by 2047, but added that for this, the government’s efforts alone were not sufficient. “The prime minister has said that it is the collective responsibility of the country’s 140 crore citizens to achieve this aim,” he said.

Several experts have pointed out that reforms to boost employment are needed for India to become a developed country by 2047.

In April, Franziska Ohnsorge, the World Bank’s chief economist for South Asia, said that India will not be able to achieve this target without introducing reforms to boost employment.

Ohnsorge said that achieving the 2047 target remained a distant dream “in a no-reform scenario”.

In March, the International Labour Organisation and the Institute of Human Development had also said out in a report titled India Employment Report 2024 that the share of unemployed youths in the total unemployed population in India was 82.9%.

The report said that unemployment among youths, especially those with a secondary level of education or higher, had intensified over time.

Reports have also said that while the Indian economy was seen growing at a fast clip of 7.2% this year, job creation has lagged.

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