Youth employment likely to rise 11% by 2026: Report

Mumbai: India's youth hiring is estimated to rise 11 per cent by 2026, creating nearly 1.28 crore jobs across IT services, fintech, and green energy sectors, provided the workforce can meet the growing demand for AI-ready and future-fit skills, global digital talent solutions provider NLB Services said on Monday.

The distribution of jobs across sectors is likely to vary, with IT services accounting for around 30-40 per cent, manufacturing around 12 per cent, healthcare around 13 per cent, fintech around 20 per cent, logistics around 10.7 per cent, and green energy around 4 per cent, NLB Services CEO Sachin Alug said.

The analysis is based on NLB Services' view of the macro ecosystem, industry trends and demand being witnessed in the industry.

Youth hiring is projected to grow by 11 per cent by 2026, translating into nearly 1.28 crore new jobs, with strong demand across IT services, fintech, manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and green energy, Alug said.

However, the growth is closely tied to the availability of AI-ready and future-fit skills, making large-scale upskilling a key priority for sustaining India's economic momentum, he added.

The demand for high-impact roles, such as AI/ML engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity specialists, cloud architects, digital product managers, and sustainability professionals, is expected to outpace supply.

Structured upskilling, skill-aligned recruitment, and outcome-based talent models will be central to ensuring India's youth not only participate, but actively power, the country's next phase of economic transformation, Alug added.

With over 65 per cent of India's population below the age of 35 years and an estimated 12 million youth set to enter the workforce by 2026, the urgency to build future-ready capabilities has never been higher, he said.

"Today, only 45 per cent are considered job-ready for high-growth tech and digital roles. This gap presents a clear opportunity - targeted upskilling at scale could unlock productivity gains of around 21 per cent across knowledge-intensive sectors, with the potential to contribute up to 8 per cent to India's GDP by 2026," he added.

He further stated that inclusive participation remained an important factor in India's workforce outcomes.

Women currently account for 41.7 per cent of the formal workforce, and youth employability levels in tier II and III cities trail metro cities, Alug stated.