Jobs for All: YourStory launches India-wide campaign to mobilise job creation in India, be a voice for job seekers

The Indian job market is facing one of its worst crisis amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the organised sector alone, an estimated 21 million salaried employees lost their jobs by the end of August, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). India had 86 million salaried employees during 2019-20, and in August 2020, their numbers were down to 65 million. It’s also important to note that all salaried jobs put together account for just 21 to 22 percent of total employment in India.

There is clearly an urgent need to create employment for the vast majority of India’s unemployed, and YourStory Mediawants to do every bit it can to catalyse job creation in India in both the organised and unorganised sectors, and more importantly, be the voice for job seekers and millions across the country who have been impacted.

To this end, YourStory is launching 'Jobs for All: In India, for India' -- an India-wide campaign to:

• catalyse job creation in India,
• be a voice for job seekers,
• spotlight India’s job creators,
• showcase India’s skill providers, and
• match job creators with job seekers

YourStory's Jobs for All Campaign will include a series of roundtables with leading economists, policymakers, business and thought leaders; stories from across India of job seekers to serve as their voice; partnerships with corporates, businesses, and skill providers to match and deliver jobs.

India’s vast reservoir of skilled manpower gives it a distinct comparative factor advantage over the global market. Our demographics reveal that over the next few decades, the country has a clear advantage with a younger population profile, especially if job opportunities in emerging sectors can be fully leveraged and optimised.

“Through YourStory’s ‘Jobs for All: In India, for India’ campaign, we hope to leverage all the resources available to us to be a force for change, by bringing together startups, enterprises, skill providers, academic institutions, policymakers to lead the change in India. Together, we can,” said Shradha Sharma, CEO and Founder, YourStory.

Six thrust areas for action to boost supply of jobs in India

Jobs for All: In India, for India campaign will focus on six key thrust areas that are directly related to job creation through roundtables, industry partnerships, skilling programmes, agenda-setting reports, policy recommendations, content series, and digital campaigns. The series will bring together leaders in technology, education, skilling, enterprises, startups, and the public sector.

Key objectives of the series

While job creation lies at the heart of this initiative, Jobs for All: In India, for India campaign will also work to:

• Ensure the Prime Minister's vision for an AatmaNirbhar Bharat is realised and create jobs in India for all
• Expand India’s share of the tech-job market
• Expand India’s mind and market share as a tech-first nation
• Support and encourage upcoming startups and enterprises in this space with job creation potential and showcase them to a larger audience
• Showcase emerging trends and skills in the job market
• Help youth upskill and develop domain expertise in specific areas
• Have dialogues between academia and enterprise to increase base of skilled professionals
• Promote public-private partnerships in creating jobs in India
• Form interest groups around opportunities to create jobs in India
• Align enterprise, academia, and state on future job trends and demand in India
• Policy recommendations to tackle the regional youth employment crisis

Calling all ecosystem partners

“Join us as we come together to power job creation for India. Together, let’s make Jobs for All: In India, for India a grand success so that together, we power a more resilient and self-reliant India,” said Shradha, as she invited partners from the government, enterprise, startup and academia ecosystem to come on board and help catalyse job creation in India, and turn a challenge into an opportunity.