OPINION OF YOUTH ON ISSUES AND CHALLENGES RELATED TO EMPLOYMENT: A STUDY IN MYSORE CITY

Employment status is one of the developmental indicators of nation. For this two things are vital, one is availability of employment opportunities and second is skillful workforce. Employment and skills are linked with many other social, economic and demographic factors. India is hoping to excel economically using its youth power. Hence many skill development programmes linked with employment options are being provided to youth by government and non-government agencies. However, the issue of employment moved from unemployment to under employment. This paper highlighted the challenges faced by urban youth and their issues and expectations with regard to employment. The study also tried to understand the trend of employment and to suggest necessary modifications in skills training based on the opinion provided by youth.


INTRODUCTION
Challenge of youth employment in developing world is linked to a complex interaction of economic, social and demographic factors (Assaad & Levison, 2013). It is estimated that India's labor force will grow by almost 10 million workers per year for the next 10 years. On the other hand, agricultural employment has been falling at a rate of about 5 million workers per year for the past decade. As nonagricultural enterprises have started creating jobs since 2000, India will require economic growth rates of 14 percent per year outside of agriculture to meet the need for jobs (Green, 2014). As per the report of World Bank report, In India during 2000-2010 the share of employment in Industry and service sector continued to grow while agriculture employed fewer workers. Many economists suggest that India stick to its service sector orientation and focus on improving job creation potential there (Jansen & Lee, 2007). Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Unemployment rates are normally considered as employment inadequacy for youth. However, understanding the root causes and issues associated with unemployment and under employment is necessary. A report by Global Business School Network (2013) writes that the poor quality of educational services is producing a workforce lacking the basic knowledge and skills needed for today's job.
The challenges of employment are seen differently by different groups such as employers, policy makers, economists, political leaders, employees and people seeking for jobs. The current study concentrates on people seeking for employment and their issues.

METHODOLOGY
The research study is descriptive in nature. Using systematic random sampling technique 583 active unemployed youth were selected for the study. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents. Pre testing of the tool was done in the field with 5% respondents and necessary correction was made. The collected data are presented in both percentage and frequency for analysis and discussion of results.

OBJECTIVES
 To understand the challenges faced by youth while trying for employment.  To know the youth's expectations and difficulties during selection for employment. Challenges are the part of any job. Challenges are not a negative indication as it provide learning opportunities. However it depends on the person who is facing challenges whether he/she is ready to learn and use his/her skills to overcome or getting into depression. In this study 71.9% respondents said that they have faced various challenges while searching for employment. Hence it is essential to understand their difficulties in order to bring modification training and education system if require.  Broadly ten areas of difficulties were shared by the respondents. These are not new issues. In fact many government programmes and private institutions are providing support in this regard. The concern is that still problems exit with basic issues. Although this is the time of media and information science, 32.2% respondents said that they failed to get information about openings. Reference and influence also a reason of headache for respondents. Many times backdoor entry and corruption also reduces the zeal of applicants. Respondents also faced difficulties with regards to adjustment issues in working environment, soft skills, computer literacy, communication skills and interpersonal relationship. These skills can be developed by providing effective skill training in educational institutions and training centers. Counselling centers (career, and psychological) in schools colleges and training centers may be useful to help youth in this regard. It is true that constant efforts towards a particular thing bring success but sometimes repeated failure causes frustration. 40.2% respondent has attended 4 to 7 interviews and 4.4% respondents have tried for job in more than 8 interviews. For job interest towards the job is also essential. However, many times applicant try in different types of jobs just to get into it and then find difficulty to cope due to dissatisfaction and lack of skills to work. Training institutions and education institutes have vital role to play in providing direction to candidates in order to choose Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] their area of interest based on their capacity, interest and availability of job and also to practice mock interviews to understand interview environment and to overcome fear and nervousness.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
There were 41.9% respondents who have left jobs or have got jobs but did not join. These respondents were unemployed during the time of study. Broadly the issues for leaving job and not joining jobs can be categorized as family related issues, personal issues, knowledge and skills and workplace issues. Low salary offers (13.9%), search for better opportunity (7.7), adjustment problem at workplace (3.1%), frequent travelling in job (0.5%) and transfer (0.2%) are some of the workplace related issues shared by respondents. Many respondents also talked about family issues such as family responsibility (1.7%), marriage (1%), taking care of elders in family (4.8%) and problem at family (0.2%). There were 3.1% respondents who wanted to start their own business and 1.2% respondents were waiting for government jobs to get.  The respondents were asked to share their opinion on few statements related to interview and job. Based on their experiences respondents provided opinion. According to 98.1% respondent salary play main role during interview. Communication in English language and computer literacy also important as per the respondents. However 54.7% respondents were disagree with the statement that political influences help to get job. Even 49.4% respondents did not support that for getting job skill and higher education is required.

Graph 2:
Made an effort to upgrade the skills Graph 2 shows that 89.7% respondents have taken different steps to upgrade their skills. It is good that youth are giving importance to skill development but at the same time it is also essential to orient youth to determine their goal and pursue skill training or courses accordingly.

CONCLUSION
Understanding the difficulties faced by youth while trying for jobs is not only useful to know the areas of lacunas but also it provides a trends of unemployment i.e. whether unemployment is because of external conditions like lack of opportunities available and training facilities or due to other personal and cultural issues. However the unemployment is the cause and consequences of many interconnected factors like demographic factors, knowledge and skills and opportunities. The challenges shared by youth provide direction to bring necessary changes in skills training. Lack of information and need of soft skills training were identified by many youth. Sometimes Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] lack of information leads to dissatisfaction in career in later stage and results reduction of productivity in work. Hence while providing information on career, various aspects such as advantages, challenges, growth path etc. should be described properly and the youth should be helped to take decision. Effective counselling services in training centers can take various factors into consideration to provide direction to the youth. Quality of training and education also affect the employability of youth. Research studies can be conducted to find out how various demographic and cultural factors are related with employment interest and status of youth.