QUEUE: Plight of Kashmir’s Unemployed Youth

For many young Kashmiris, a degree is not the end of the journey. It is the beginning of another wait. With degrees in hand, thousands of educated young people continue to navigate a difficult employment landscape — marked by intense competition for government jobs, limited private-sector opportunities, debates over reservation, and, for some, the search for work beyond Kashmir. In February 2026, J&K MP Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan cited an unemployment rate of 6.7% for Jammu & Kashmir in Parliament and raised concerns over the number of educated unemployed youth in the region. But behind these figures are individual stories — young people preparing for competitive examinations, searching for private-sector opportunities, exploring entrepreneurship, or leaving Kashmir in search of better employment prospects. QUEUE brings together the voices of unemployed youth, student representatives, politicians, educationists and Kashmiri workers abroad to examine the different dimensions of the employment challenge. The report looks at the competition for government jobs, the debate surrounding reservation, the availability of private-sector opportunities, and the choices young people make when employment opportunities at home remain limited. At the centre of the story is a simple question: After the degree, what comes next? Report/Edit: Murtaza Bilal