Thiruvananthapuram: The number of unemployed youth in Kerala is higher than the national average. A total of 36,25,852 persons, including medical and engineering graduates, remain unemployed here. Among them, the number of unemployed engineering graduates is increasing steadily, according to the statistics of the labour department.

The population in Kerala is 3.45 crore. The unemployment rate in Kerala is 9.43 percent whereas the national average is 6.1 percent only. Sikkim and Tripura are the only states that have high unemployment rate than Kerala with 19.7 percent and 18.1 percent respectively.

Among the unemployed youth, women are higher in number. In total, 23,00,139 women are unemployed out of which 2,31,816 are graduates and 75,088 are postgraduates. Among 13,25,713 unemployed men, 99,376 are graduates and 19,505 postgraduates.

The statistics show that even professional graduates are unemployed here. Medical, engineering, MBA and ITI graduates are included in the list of unemployed.

Number of unemployed professional graduates

Engineering – 44,559

Doctors – 7303

Agricultural – 1509

Veterinary – 540

LLB-LLM – 654

MCA – 3771

MBA – 6413

PGDCA – 3302

BSc Nursing – 12,006

BSc MLT – 1484

PG Arts – 19,926

PG Commerce – 11,408

PG Science – 9738

ITI Diploma – 78,410

NTC – 94,415