Data & Insights

HSBC's Quality of Life report reveals a shift among Gen Z from traditional wealth accumulation to seeking balance, fulfilment, and purpose, with "multi retirements" emerging as a trend. But Sabina Dewan highlights this perspective reflects the privileged few. In India and other developing countries, most young people continue to struggle with low earnings and lack of social security and even well-paying jobs can feel isolating and purposeless.

Despite high education levels, Kerala faces alarmingly high rates of youth who are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET). This disconnect between education and labour force participation signals a deep socioeconomic challenge. Based on qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders in the state, JustJobs Network's Isha Gupta unpacks this paradox, pointing to a mismatch between youth aspirations and available opportunities.

JJN's Sabina Dewan writes on how technological advancement, trade shocks, climate change, and the energy transition are transforming how we live and work, faster than the ability of our education and skill systems to keep pace. She says urgent, comprehensive reforms — from effective implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) to stronger industry partnerships — are necessary to improve our education and skills systems.

India is advancing social security for online gig workers, but this marks only a reactive step in addressing the evolving nature of informal work. JJN’s Renjini Rajagopalan writes for The Hindu highlighting the need for a more inclusive, universal social protection system to ensure no worker is left behind, especially as new worker categories emerge.

JJN’s Sabina Dewan writes on the urgent need to bridge the gap between growth and quality of jobs for the Indian working-age population. Labour market in India is failing to generate enough high-quality jobs for its large and growing population; at the same time employers struggle to find workers with the right skills for the job openings they have. Highlighting the growing extent of precarity in the nature of available work in the country, she makes the case for adopting a ground-up approach for job creation.

Sabina Dewan in conversation with Govindraj Ethiraj of The Core on recent labour union strikes and related labour market trends and laws (episode #398, 12:07). She highlights the need for authentic social dialogue for effective application and implementation of labour regulations, and reasons why worker protests are becoming more prominent and frequent. She addresses the question of role of private sector and governments in ensuring worker protection and fostering inclusivity in rapidly changing labour markets. Listen to The Core podcast on rising yet diverging markets.

JJN’s Sabina Dewan writes on the expanding e-commerce ecosystem in India and its effect on MSMEs of the country. From the perspective of micro, small and medium enterprises, that are dealing with tech disruptions to stay in business and the 111 million jobs they support, she calls for appropriate and effective regulations to enable more inclusive growth of e-commerce.

While tech platforms have eased our lives, too little attention is paid to a growing inequity. Capital gets to multiply, but gig workers are left at a disadvantage as they’re not treated as employees and lack labour protection under the law. This capital-labour imbalance needs to be addressed.

JJN Fellow Kaushiki Sanyal was featured on the Policy in Practice podcast hosted by SPRF. In this conversation, Kaushiki highlighted the processes, projects and partnerships through which The Centre for Gender Analysis, an initiative by the JustJobs Network, aims to enhance women's economic empowerment.

As global labour markets continue to undergo transition induced by rapid technological advancement and climate change, there is not enough research that captures the diverse experiences of the Global South. The FutureWORKS Collective, funded by IDRC Canada, is a consortium of research organisations that will fill this lacuna. The JustJobs Network is proud to be the coordinator of this initiative that underscores the urgency of adapting research and policies to the realities of the Global South.