How ostentatiously do we flaunt our degrees, no longer on walls, but definitely on our LinkedIn profiles and résumés. What if everything that you studied after the 10th was futile, not because work without degrees lacks dignity, but because of what this preference says about the direction of India’s labour market.A recent WorkIndia report has revealed this harsh truth with numbers. Based on hiring data from nearly 9.9 lakh employers and over 10 crore workers in 2025, the platform found that “Less than Tenth” has emerged as the most sought-after qualification across job postings. The question is no longer why this is happening, but where this road leads.
The collapse of education as a hiring signal
For decades, education functioned as a foundation and a powerful filter. It signals discipline, basic literacy, and a potential to learn. Employers did not always need the knowledge a degree represented, but they trusted the process behind it. The trust is fraying and eroding. In high-volume sectors, delivery, logistics, telecalling, and warehouse operations have failed to guarantee job readiness.But here is the paradox. By preferring “Less than Tenth,” employers are not saying education is unnecessary. They are saying it has become irrelevant to productivity. That distinction should worry policymakers far more than it currently does.A TeamLease report titled From Degree Factories to Employability Hubs demonstrate that 75% of higher education institutions in India remain misaligned with industry needs. This is the very reason that jobs and education are taking different paths, which used to walk hand in hand.
A labour market built for speed, not progression
This shift reveals the kind of economy India is building. Is it just rapid execution that we are looking forward to, or does it reflect on upward mobility. Jobs are being designed to be learned quickly, performed repetitively, and replaced easily. One thing is for sure, when education stops being a requirement, training stops being an investment.Workers are hired for what they can do today, not what they could become tomorrow. The result is a workforce that is flexible, affordable, and permanently disposable. In such a system, skill does not accumulate; it slowly expires.
Decentralisation without development
Geographically, the WorkIndia report highlights a second major shift. While Delhi still accounts for 26 percent of job postings, demand is spreading rapidly into tier-II and tier-III cities.On the surface, this looks like inclusive growth. But a closer look complicates the picture.Jobs are moving outward, but largely in low-skill, low-mobility roles. What this means is it is decentralisation of employment and not of opportunity. Smaller cities are absorbing work that metros no longer want, but it does not necessarily mean that they are building long-term economic resilience. Without parallel investment in skilling and education, this risks locking entire regions into cycles of low-wage labour.
Gendered hiring in a “skill-first” market
The report’s gender findings further expose the limits of this shift. Delivery continues to overwhelmingly prefer men, while telecalling dominates women’s hiring.When formal qualifications disappear as a hiring filter, informal biases often step in to fill the vacuum. Skill-first hiring, without safeguards, does not automatically translate into equitable hiring.
What happens when education no longer pays?
The most dangerous implication of this trend lies beyond the labour market, it dwells in classrooms.If young people observe that finishing school does not meaningfully improve employability, dropout rates will not decline. They will definitely rise. The economic logic becomes brutally simple: Why invest years in education when the market rewards immediate labour?This is how short-term efficiency quietly sabotages long-term growth. India does not just risk creating a workforce without degrees. It risks creating a workforce without ladders.
Where the job market is heading
The trajectory is clear. As businesses chase speed, flexibility, and cost control, the demand for credential-free labour will grow. WorkIndia itself projects this trend will accelerate through 2026.But unless this shift is matched by serious, scalable skilling frameworks, the market is heading towards a dangerous equilibrium: High employment and low advancement.A job market that no longer values education must replace it with something else, credible skills, transferable training, and real progression pathways. Without that, “Less than Tenth” stops being a hiring criterion and becomes a ceiling.And that is the real risk India faces, not joblessness, but a future where work exists without promise, and employment expands without empowerment.
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