01 ↓ The Book
WTF Is
Employability?
The Biggest Lie Told to Young India
You are not unemployable.
You never were.
"There are not enough jobs — and 'employability' is the word we invented to avoid saying so."
01 ↓ The Book
The Biggest Lie Told to Young India
You are not unemployable.
You never were.
"There are not enough jobs — and 'employability' is the word we invented to avoid saying so."
02 · The Premise
"Employability" is not a skill you lack; it is a story that powerful people tell so they never have to say the true sentence out loud: there are not enough jobs, and there will not be enough jobs, and no one is coming to fix that for you. The word shifts the blame for a structural failure — of the economy, of business, of the state — onto the individual young person, who is then sold the cure by the very people who benefit from the disease.
03 · Inside The Book
Part One
"If the graduates are unemployable, why are twenty-five lakh of them fighting to become peons?"
"In 2025 Rajasthan advertised 53,749 posts for peons... Nearly twenty-five lakh people applied, among them 129 engineers, 393 postgraduates and one chartered accountant. If the most qualified in the room are fighting for the least qualified job in the building, the shortage is not of skills. It is of jobs."
24.76 lakh
applicants for 53,749 peon posts (Rajasthan, 2025)
42%
unemployment among graduates under 25, vs ~3% nationally
Part Two
"If growth is real, why aren't the jobs?"
"Let me say the sentence the whole establishment has arranged its vocabulary to avoid: there are not enough jobs in India, there have not been for a long time, and there will not be for the foreseeable future."
~1 crore
enter the labour force every year
8.7 crore
young Indians neither working, studying, nor training (NITI Aayog)
Part Three
"Given that the system will not provide, how do I build a life anyway?"
"A job is rented time: it stops the moment you stop. An asset is something you own that pays whether or not anyone chose you. In an economy of scarce chairs, stop waiting to be hired and build a chair of your own."
99 of 100
lose — and losing says nothing about your worth
Not your fault — and still your responsibility. Hold both.
04 · The Numbers
24.76 lakh
applicants for 53,749 peon posts (Rajasthan, 2025) — including 129 engineers and one chartered accountant
3.1%
9%+
CMIE
17%
Graduates
the official unemployment rate (PLFS) — and what counting less generously actually finds
40–50%
of students unplaced at several new IITs — the most skilled cohort in the country
1 in 5
PMKVY (flagship skilling scheme) trainees ever placed, on the government's own numbers
8.7 crore
young Indians NEET — not working, studying, or training (NITI Aayog)
1 in 1,000
the UPSC success rate — ~10 lakh candidates for ~1,000 posts
They have been taking young Indians for a ride for thirty years.
You are the generation that gets to decide it stops.
05 · About the Author
Vikas Gupta is a policy commentator and rights advocate whose work centres on the people a system prefers not to count. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he writes and speaks on public policy, economic opportunity, and the institutions that shape young lives.
06 · Get the Book
Media Inquiries
For press coverage, interviews, and review copies, reach out via the author's portfolio at author.vikasgupta.world ↗
Speaking Inquiries
Vikas Gupta speaks on public policy, employment, and economic opportunity. Enquire via LinkedIn ↗