'30% workforce to be unemployed in 2020'

Pointing out the flip side to the much-touted young workforce of India, the latest India Labour Report by recruitment agency TeamLease Services has forecast that 30 per cent of the country's 716 million-strong workforce in the year 2020 will be without work.

This can trigger social security problems as the bulk of the unemployed "" 85 to 90 per cent "" will be in the age group of 15-29. The quality of those employed in the future is not very encouraging as only 88 million will be graduates, while another 76 million will have passed their senior secondary level.

The bulging population and the expanding workforce will require about 15 million new jobs every year, against the 10 million new jobs being projected by the government.

The scarcity of job opportunities in the organised sector is likely to create a major shift towards the unorganised sector, which is already expanding and absorbing additional workforce.

Of India's 402 million-strong workforce, only about 7 per cent is in the organised sector. The unorganised sector is absorbing more labour and has improved upon its '80s pace of 29.62 per cent growth to 30.29 per cent in the '90s.

The organised sector, which is under the purview of labour laws, remains more rigid than the unorganised sector, which remains outside the reach of most labour laws.

The report estimates the annual financial "damage" to the exchequer due to the unorganised sector's leakages in terms of tax revenues at 32 per cent of the total manufacturing sector GDP at Rs 162,000 crore.

"Unfortunately, labour legislation has been hijacked by a small minority of organised labour," says Manish Sabharwal, chairman, TeamLease Services.

The report lays stress on reducing unnecessary state intervention and over-legislation in the field of labour.