India Trying to Tackle Unemployment

India is seeking to boost the aspirational value of jobs such as plumbing, carpentry and beautician to make more people employable in a market with one of the world’s largest working-age populations, Bloomberg reported.  Changing perceptions toward handyman jobs and increasing training capacity are the objectives of India’s skills program, K.P. Krishnan, the top bureaucrat in the skill development ministry, said in an interview. Ministry officials are visiting institutes to discuss with students the importance of acquiring vocational skills and apprenticeship programs, he said. Creating opportunities for the young workforce is a key pledge of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he prepares to seek reelection early next year. Failure to do that risks quickly turning the nation’s so-called demographic dividend—more than 60% of the population is in the working age group of 15-59 years—into a disaster and stalling the current world-beating pace of economic growth. India’s gross domestic product growth, now at more than 7%, hasn’t created enough jobs for the 12 million people entering the workforce every year.