Why College Education Reduces Earnings In India - Marcellus CIO Saurabh Mukherjea Breaks It Down

At a time when skills not degrees have emerged as the absolute currency, Chief Investment Officer at Marcellus Investment Managers Saurabh Mukherjea makes for why the conventional route of a college degree doesn't always translate into employment.

The prominent investor noted that while “millions graduates enter the workforce annually, only 1 million proper corporate jobs are created.”

Commenting on what's the mindset of great degree leads to the perfect job, he said,"The challenge with this mindset, right, it actually doesn't work in our country. If you look at the unemployment rate of the overall graduate population, it's around 30%. One in three graduates in India."

"The reason we are saying that going to university is not the optimal career choices, the unemployment rate for illiterates is 3%," he noted, while adding that there are more existential problems for the latter.

Comparatively, lower the level of education, the lower the unemployment rate, according to the Marcellus CIO.

"Passing class 10 or class 12 is basically the optimal level of education, both in terms of career earnings and in terms of probability of employment, according to Mukherjea's latest book Breakpoint.

Notably, he further revealed that of the total graduate population in India, "unemployment rate seems to be 30%", which is 10x higher than for illiterates.

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However, India's daily wage and salaried jobs rose to 23.6% from 22.4%, which is reportedly 2.5x higher than informal work, simultaneously the share of self-employed workers declined to 56.2%, as per national 2025 labour statistics.

As per Xpheno’s Active Tech Jobs latest report, India recorded 1,10,000 active tech job openings in April, signalling a 8% drop from March 2026, however demand remains 7% higher as compared to the same period last year.

The job market outlook for this year further noted that Entry-level roles remain at 15,000 level, 11% lower than last year, meanwhile, mid-junior roles declined 25% to 6,000 openings.