Over half of Tamil Nadu’s youth hold a degree, the highest share of any State, and have regular salaried jobs, a survey has found.

In the age group of 22 to 29 years, 52% hold a degree and 56% of those in the labour force have regular salaried jobs, according to the findings of the Tamil Nadu Handbook of Youth Opportunity, released by the Future of India Foundation and the Chennai International Centre (CIC) on Saturday.

Share of young women in work rose from 19% to 25% and the proportion of those in neither work nor education nor training declined from 49% to 40%.

On the flip side, graduates make up two-thirds of the State’s unemployed. Forty per cent of young women and 10% of young men are neither working nor in education or training.

The silver lining, perhaps, is that over eight years up to 2025, unemployment among 15 to 29-year-olds fell from 26% to 14%, and the share of young people in neither work nor education nor training fell from 34% to 25%.

Pay, however, remained low as 71% of workers between 15 and 29 years earned less than ₹20,000 a month. If it is any solace, the average regular salary of workers in the age group rose by 17% to ₹17,100 in real terms in eight years up to 2025.

C. Chandramouli, Managing Director, CIC; M. Suresh Babu, Director, Madras Institute of Development Studies; Ramesh Mangaleswaran, Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey, and Ruchi Gupta, Executive Director, Future of India Foundation, were present at the unveiling of the handbook, which can be accessed at youthpower.in/handbook/tamilnadu