For 76% Indians, lack of job opportunities is biggest challenge

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For 76% Indians, lack of job opportunities is biggest challenge

About two-thirds of the public says corrupt officials (66%), terrorism (65%) and crime (64%) are very big problems

Tuesday March 26, 2019 11:57 AM, ummid.com News Network

Mumbai: Not only has overall satisfaction level gone down from its 2017 level, but concern over unemployment has also gone up with more than 75 percent in the country saying they are "extremely worried" over lack of job opportunities, a latest survey released by Pew Research Center said.

"Lack of employment opportunities is seen by the public as India’s biggest challenge, with 76% of adults saying it is a very big problem – little changed over the past year", Washington based Pew Research Center said citing the estimates by the International Labor Office.

"In 2018, despite an estimated 3.5% formal unemployment rate, 18.6 million Indians were jobless and another 393.7 million work in poor-quality jobs vulnerable to displacement", it added.

Other aspects of the economy are also at the top of the public’s concerns. More than seven-in-ten (73%) believe rising prices are a very big problem.

About two-thirds of the public says corrupt officials (66%), terrorism (65%) and crime (64%) are very big problems.

"In each case, such concern is down significantly from 2017 – by 20 percentage points in the case of crime, 11 points for terrorism and 8 points regarding officials’ corruption", Pew Research Center said in its report released just days before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"Indians with at least a secondary education are significantly more worried about corrupt officials than the less educated. Notably, there is little partisan difference in views of these problems", the center said in its report.

"On one very personal aspect of crime, more than half (54%) of Indians say the statement “most people live in areas where it is dangerous to walk around at night” describes India very or somewhat well", the report said.

"Roughly half of the public believes the gap between the rich and the poor is a very big problem (51%) and a similar share complains about poor-quality schools (50%). But while the latter sentiment has not changed since 2017, concern about inequality is down 10 points. More than four-in-ten are very concerned about air pollution and health care (both 44%), but these views are also down 10 points", it said.

National Condition

A good number of people in the country however are satisified with the overall National Condition, though the number is marginally down as compared to 2017.

"Indian adults certainly recognize that their personal economic well-being has benefited greatly from strong national economic performance: Indian economic growth has averaged 7.3% per year since 2014. Roughly two-thirds (65%) say the financial situation of average people in India is better today than it was 20 years ago. Only 15% say things are worse", the report said.

"But there are signs of public unease. About two-thirds of Indians (66%) believe that today’s children will be better off than their parents. But that optimism is down 10 percentage points since 2017", it said.

"Similarly, a majority of Indians (55%) are happy with the way things are going in their nation today. But that is down 15 points from 70% in 2017", the report said.

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