Despite performing well in terms of educational access and attainment, the southern state of Kerala exhibits very high rates of youth who are not in education, employment, or training. Based on qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders in the state, Isha Gupta seeks to unpack this paradox. She highlights the mismatch between youth aspirations and available jobs, which causes several well-educated young persons to out-migrate in search of better prospects.

Kerala is often celebrated as one of the most literate states in India. At 95.3%, its literacy rate for the 7+ age group is significantly higher than the national average of 80.9%. For youth aged 15-29, the literacy rate is nearly 100% (Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), 2023-24). Beyond literacy, the state also performs well on educational access and attainment, with near-universal school enrolment and a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 41.3% in higher education for the 18-23 age group, well above the national average of 28.4% (Ministry of Education, 2021-22).

Yet, beneath this success lies a paradox: despite its achievement in educational access and attainment, Kerala is facing alarmingly high rates of youth who are “Not in education, employment, or training” (NEET). The scale of the problem becomes clear when we look at the statistics: Kerala’s youth NEET rate stands at 26%.¹ The situation is especially dire for young women, with the rate soaring to 38.1% (44.5% in rural areas) – among the highest in the country. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) among youth in Kerala is 46.5%, with male participation at 63.5% and female participation at 28.8%. The youth unemployment rate stands at 29.9%, with a stark gender disparity: 19.3% for males and 47.1% for females. The rural youth unemployment rate is even higher, at 35.1% (22.2% for males and 56.6% for females).

This disconnect between Kerala’s high levels of education and low LFPR poses a serious socioeconomic challenge. What explains this paradox? On a recent field visit to Kerala, I conducted qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders, including students, teachers, and government officials. They revealed that this issue is not only about job availability. Rather, it is shaped by interlinked factors, such as structural constraints, aspirational mismatch, and gendered societal norms, each reinforcing the other. While the statistics tell one part of the story, the lived experiences of Kerala’s youth demonstrate how these issues play out on the ground and where policy intervention is required.

Job scarcity and aspiration-based unemployment

Across India, high NEET rates are shaped by both limited access to education and a mismatch between educational attainment and available employment opportunities. In Kerala, where access to education is comparatively widespread, this mismatch plays a particularly important role in driving NEET rates among the youth. Given the higher rates of educational attainment, Kerala’s youth – especially the educated – tend to aspire to white-collar jobs. However, the job market in the state is not quite aligned with these aspirations.

Kerala’s limited industrial base restricts the availability of local jobs that match the skills and aspirations of its youth – a challenge that is even more acute for women, given the gendered barriers they face. Even if industry expands, the resulting factory or manual jobs may not meet the career expectations of the youth. With few suitable jobs available and informal or low-paying work seen as undesirable, many young people either remain unemployed, underemployed, or migrate in search of better prospects.

While Kerala’s tourism and service sectors do offer some employment potential, these opportunities are often seasonal, informal, and geographically concentrated within the state. As a result, they lack the capacity to absorb large numbers of trained youth into stable, long-term employment. Many young people therefore remain unemployed or underemployed for prolonged periods, waiting for the ‘right’ opportunity. As one government official we spoke to noted, “Students here are unwilling to go to MSMEs [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises] – they are more interested in large corporations and government opportunities”. This reflects a broader mismatch between aspirations and available employment options, a key factor contributing to the state’s high NEET rate.

Among unemployed women in Kerala, research indicates that 31.1% are not working because they are preparing for suitable jobs (including self-study for competitive exams or attending coaching classes for exams or interviews) – positions that align with their aspirations, qualifications, and location constraints. This pattern is not exclusive to women. Among unemployed men, 80% remain without work because they have yet to find suitable jobs that meet their expectations. This highlights a crucial aspect of unemployment among youth: it is not merely a lack of job opportunities but a gap between available jobs and aspirational choices.

The types of jobs that men and women regard as “suitable” also differ, as highlighted in PLFS data, which points to a clear gendered division of labour. For females, the leading occupations are finance, software and application development, technical support in medicine and pharmaceuticals, and teaching. For males, the most common jobs include sales, mining and construction, and sheet and structural metal work. This divide suggests that while women tend to seek professional roles, where job availability may be more limited, men are somewhat more represented in blue-collar sectors – though their job search is also shaped by expectations of what is “suitable”.

Field observations reinforce these findings, highlighting multiple barriers faced by youth in Kerala’s job market. As one state government official noted: “There is a clear shortage of trade-specific jobs. Many students are either waiting endlessly for roles that match their training or end up taking up unrelated, low-skilled work.” This is compounded by limited career awareness, with many young people aspiring to similar job profiles that do not reflect the actual demands of the labour market. The official also pointed out that Kerala lacks a robust industrial base, with only a few industrial clusters capable of offering employment opportunities to trained candidates.

Another concern raised was the poor quality of apprenticeships – employers often assign students to unrelated tasks, defeating the purpose of hands-on skill development. As one official mentioned: “The biggest issue with apprenticeships is that students are trained in one trade but made to work in something entirely different. It defeats the purpose of the [apprenticeship] programme.” 

Youth migration and selective retention

Faced with limited opportunities that match their qualifications and aspirations, many of Kerala’s educated youth opt to migrate – both within India and abroad – in search of better prospects. According to the International Labour Organization (2024), Kerala had the highest migration rate among all Indian states in 2021. Approximately 2.2 million people have emigrated from the state to live abroad, while an additional 0.5 million have relocated to other Indian states (Kerala Migration Survey, 2023). Together, these migrants make up about 6.2% of the state’s population.

Out-migration in Kerala is not just widespread – it is deeply selective. It is mainly the youth who are out-migrating, leaving behind an increasingly older demographic and skewing the dependency ratio of the state. This is reflected in the increase in the median age in the state, from 31 years in 2011 to 39 years in 2023 – a change shaped by out-migration alongside other demographic factors, such as below-replacement fertility rates. Further, the number of student emigrants has nearly doubled from 129,763 in 2018 to approximately 250,000 in 2023, with students now making up 11.3% of all emigrants from Kerala. This rise is sharper than the nationwide increase over the same period, which was about 52% – from 5.20 lakh in 2018 to 8.95 lakh in 2023.

Among those who migrate, the majority are relatively well-educated. According to the Kerala Migration Survey, 41.4% of the total emigrant population hold college degrees. The trend is especially stark among women, with 71.5% of female emigrants holding degrees – nearly twice the share of male graduates among emigrants (34.7%). The outward movement is not just about seeking better opportunities abroad; it is also a reflection of limited local employment pathways for Kerala's educated population. This demographic shift underlines a concerning reality: it is mostly young, well-educated workers who are leaving in search of better education and employment prospects abroad. At the same time, many of those who remain are not participating in the labour force, thereby contributing to an increased NEET rate in the state.

Additionally, migration trends in Kerala are sharply gendered. In conversations with college principals and state government officials, a consistent pattern emerged: while boys are more inclined to seek opportunities outside Kerala in India or abroad, girls tend to look for options closer to home, often within their own districts, due to a combination of factors including parents’ preferences for early marriages, making migration for work difficult. Girls, however, often migrate after marriage, typically relocating with their spouses rather than for independent educational or employment opportunities.

Marriage and workforce participation

While many young men migrate in pursuit of better opportunities, young women in Kerala are far less mobile due to deeply rooted societal expectations around caregiving, marriage, and mobility. Even though the state ranks high on gender-related development indicators compared to other Indian states – such as female literacy, maternal health, and age at marriage – entrenched social expectations around marriage, caregiving, and women’s mobility continue to shape their employment outcomes. These norms often become more restrictive after marriage, causing a significant proportion of young women to exit the labour force – contributing to the state’s high NEET rate among young women.

Even among those who are well-educated, these gendered norms significantly restrict their employment choices – especially post-marriage. Existing research shows that 58% of unemployed women in Kerala aged 18-40 cite childbirth and other family responsibilities as the main reasons for not working, compared to only 4% of unemployed males. Furthermore, a little over half of the married, unemployed female youth in Kerala indicated that their employment choices got limited due to family responsibilities. This could be due to restrictions imposed on them regarding location, nature of work, or work timing by their spouse or his family.

According to a 2018 report, women in Kerala spent an average of 66.7 hours per week on household maintenance and caregiving activities, compared to just 20.3 hours for men. This gendered difference is also reflected among youth aged 15-29 in the Time Use Survey (2019). Such a significant gender disparity highlights how domestic and caregiving responsibilities disproportionately fall on women.

At an all-women National Skills Training Institute (NSTI), the principal noted that many students were married women with children. However, trade-specific local job opportunities remain limited, and many women are unable to take up jobs far from home due to domestic responsibilities. As a result, many of these women either wait for relevant opportunities nearby post-training, adding to the growing NEET population among women, or end up accepting generic, non-skilled jobs.

Way forward

Kerala’s high NEET drives large-scale migration, disrupting demographic stability, and increasing dependence on remittances rather than fostering a self-sustaining economy. Addressing this requires not just inclusive job creation but also shifting societal perceptions around employment choices and expanding career opportunities across sectors.

There is a need to institutionalise career counselling to help youth understand the variety of career pathways, existing labour market realities, and manage their aspirations in line with available opportunities. At the same time, the state ought to incentivise firms to offer meaningful apprenticeships, providing youth exposure to different types of work and bridging the gap between their skills and available opportunities. For women, flexible work models, improved care infrastructure, and social support for post-marriage employment are essential. If left unaddressed, the state’s demographic advantage may become a growing liability.

Note:

1. Author’s calculations using PLFS 2023-24 data.