1 in 4 graduate men and 1 in 2 graduate women in Telangana are unemployed

Hyderabad: Telangana tells a powerful story about itself. A story of Hyderabad as a global technology hub, of gleaming campuses housing Microsoft, Google and Amazon, of a state that transformed itself into one of India’s most dynamic economies.

It is a compelling narrative. It is also, for a large share of Telangana’s graduates, almost entirely irrelevant, as per a report.

According to the State of Working India 2026 report by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University, 1 in 4 male graduates and 1 in 2 female graduates in Telangana are unemployed.

These are young people with degrees, actively looking for work and unable to find it.

“The report traces the journey of a young worker, from education to job search and employment,” said Rosa Abraham, Associate Professor of Economics and lead author. “Whether this large, increasingly educated and aspirational cohort is absorbed into the labour market will determine if India’s demographic dividend becomes an economic dividend.”

In Telangana, that absorption is not happening.

The numbers tell a harsher story

Across India, graduate unemployment varies widely, but Telangana stands out sharply.

At the national level, 22 per cent of male graduates and 37 per cent of female graduates are unemployed, but several states perform significantly better.

Delhi records some of the lowest levels, with about 10 per cent male and 13 per cent female graduate unemployment, followed by Gujarat at roughly 12 per cent and 15 per cent. Even Karnataka, home to Bengaluru’s IT ecosystem, reports 22 per cent male and just 20 per cent female graduate unemployment, while Maharashtra stands at 20 per cent male and 22 per cent female.

How are the other states faring?

Against this backdrop, Telangana’s numbers are stark.

With 28 per cent male and 52 per cent female graduate unemployment, the state sits far above the national average, particularly for women. In fact, its female unemployment rate is closer to some of the worst-performing regions in the country.

Jammu and Kashmir reports about 73 per cent female graduate unemployment, while Rajasthan, Kerala and Odisha hover around 50 per cent, and Andhra Pradesh is estimated at roughly 38 per cent for men and 52 per cent for women.

Even large states such as Uttar Pradesh, with 25 per cent male and 43 per cent female unemployment, and Bihar, with 30 per cent male and 40 per cent female, perform better than Telangana on the female side.

The most telling comparison is with Karnataka. Karnataka, driven by Bengaluru’s IT sector, has female graduate unemployment of around 20 per cent. Telangana, driven by Hyderabad’s comparable tech economy, has around 52 per cent.

That is a 32 percentage point gap between two similar economies.

A female graduate in Bengaluru faces a 1 in 5 chance of being unemployed. In Hyderabad, it is closer to 1 in 2. The infrastructure exists. The companies exist. The promise exists. The outcomes do not.

The gender fault line runs deepest here

The crisis is sharper for women. The gap between male and female graduate unemployment in Telangana is about 24 percentage points, far wider than the national average gap of around 15 points.

The report explains why. “For women, marriage and social norms result in shorter search time available to them, if at all,” it notes. “Open unemployment and long durations of unemployment may be rare for women.”

In other words, many women disappear from the data altogether. The 52 per cent figure is likely an undercount.

Fieldwork cited in the report shows young women in Hyderabad turning to platform work, logging into Amazon MTurk or Clickworker at odd hours and earning Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 a month doing repetitive digital tasks. “Nowhere to go for help, no medical insurance, no stability or a safety net,” one young woman told researchers.

These are not jobs. They are survival strategies. And many of these women are not counted as unemployed at all.

More colleges, fewer jobs

The paradox is stark. Education has expanded rapidly. Jobs have not.

India now has over 69,000 higher education institutions, up from just 1,644 in the 1950s, with nearly 80 per cent privately run. But expansion has come without quality or employment outcomes.

Private colleges average 28 students per teacher, while public colleges average 47, both far exceeding recommended norms. “Hiring and filling up vacancies in teaching positions remain crucial,” the report states, warning that learning outcomes are being compromised.

The result is a generation with degrees but limited employability. “Multiple employer surveys reveal their discontent in the disconnect between graduate qualifications and on-the-job performance,” the report notes.

Only about 55 per cent of graduates are considered employable, even as hiring slows. Fresh graduate hiring has dropped from 22 per cent in 2024 to 14 per cent in 2025, with employers increasingly preferring candidates with experience.

Graduates cannot get jobs without experience. They cannot get experience without jobs.

The 2030 deadline nobody is talking about

This crisis is not static. It is time-bound.

India is nearing the peak of its demographic dividend. “The ratio of the working age population to the dependent population is expected to decline from 2030 onwards,” the report states. The window is closing.

“Never before have so many young Indians been as educated and as connected,” the report notes. “Creating remunerative and meaningful employment… is imperative.”

For Telangana, this is not a future concern. It is a present crisis.

Andhra Pradesh: Education without an economy to match

If Telangana’s problem is exclusion, Andhra Pradesh’s problem is absence.

Graduate unemployment in Andhra Pradesh is even higher for men, with around 38 per cent of male graduates unemployed, compared to Telangana’s 28 per cent and the national average of 22 per cent. Female graduate unemployment remains similarly high at around 52 per cent, placing it among the worst-performing states in the country.

“The pace of employment creation… will be critical,” the report states. In Andhra Pradesh, that pace has fallen behind.

The issue is not an excess of graduates. It is the absence of jobs.

What needs to change

The report is clear about the solutions.

Strengthening job matching systems, integrating apprenticeships into training, and aligning education with labour market demand are critical steps. “The transition from learning to earning must be approached as a systemic challenge,” it concludes.

For Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the problem is not a lack of education.

It is the absence of the jobs that education was supposed to unlock.

Until that changes, 1 in 4 graduate men in Telangana and nearly 2 in 5 in Andhra Pradesh will keep searching, while 1 in 2 graduate women across both states remain locked out of the workforce.