An All-India Congress Committee (AICC) report, released on Tuesday ahead of the Union Budget, said entry-level information technology (IT) jobs have seen wage stagnation.”Wage stagnation has been especially visible in entry-level information technology jobs, once considered a reliable path to middle-class security, and now under threat due to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence,” said the report titled “Real State of the Economy, 2026,” released in Delhi by AICC research department chairman MV Rajeev Gowda and research in-charge Amitabh Dubey.
“At a time when inequality is worsening, corporate profits are rising, meaningful job creation is not happening,” the report said. “India needs honest numbers and an inclusive development model that creates jobs, not just headlines.”
The report further added that, in India’s overall job market, job growth has concentrated in informal and gig work. Forty percent of salaried workers have no contract, no paid leave, and no social security. While corporate profits grew 22.3%, the number of jobs increased by only 1.5% in 2023-24, it noted.
According to the report, youth unemployment reached 15% in September 2025 and 18.4% in urban areas. One in four urban young women who seek employment cannot find a job.
According to the report, India accounts for a fifth of the total global workforce engaged in platform work, and the Union government’s response to the labour and social protection of gig workers has been grossly inadequate. Despite the new Labour Codes, gig workers continue to remain on the margins of labour regulation, it added.
It highlighted that the Union government had paid little attention to gig workers’ welfare, even though the Code on Social Security, 2020, is the Centre’s main framework for providing social protection to gig and platform workers. The code provides for a gig and platform workers’ social security fund to be set up and administered by the Centre. Aggregators are expected to contribute between 1% and 2% of their annual turnover to this fund, capped at 5% of the total amount they pay to gig and platform workers.
However, under the Codes, social security for gig workers continues to remain uncertain and poorly defined. The Code creates the fund and lists possible benefits, but it does not guarantee what workers will actually receive, when they will receive it, or how claims will be processed.
Some states, like Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Telangana, have introduced their own laws and welfare mechanisms. “In effect, gig workers are promised welfare through schemes, but without a clear, enforceable, and time-bound pathway to real benefits,” the report said.
