This article examines the employability of vocationally trained youth and estimates their earning functions and existing wage differentials by gender and social groups in both Punjab and Haryana. Using primary data from two selected districts (one from each state) with a sample size of 914 pass-outs from 19 training institutes, we find that lack of demand and skill issues restrict vocationally trained youth to obtain quality jobs in these districts. Hence, most of them are either found in contractual jobs with a lower level of earning or remain unemployed from the time of completion of their training. Moreover, significant earning/wage differences are noted across gender and social groups. Female and Scheduled Caste (SC) workers are discriminated by getting paid lesser than their male and upper caste counterparts, despite their similar training and skill endowments. Hence, it is suggested that government intervention is necessary to lower the existing skill gap and to improve the quality of jobs for vocationally trained youth to reduce the rising unemployment problem.

本文研究了受过职业训练的年轻人的就业能力，并估计了旁遮普邦和哈里亚纳邦的性别和社会群体的收入功能和现有的工资差异。使用来自两个选定地区（每个州一个）的主要数据，并从19个培训机构进行了914例抽样调查，我们发现缺乏需求和技能问题限制了受过职业培训的年轻人在这些地区获得优质的工作。因此，他们中的大多数要么被发现从事收入较低的合同工作，要么在完成培训后仍然没有工作。此外，在性别和社会群体之间注意到了显着的收入/工资差异。女工和贱民（SC）工人的待遇低于男同工和高等种姓的工人，尽管他们拥有相似的培训和技能天赋。因此，建议政府干预是必要的，以减少现有的技能差距并提高职业培训青年的工作质量，以减少日益严重的失业问题。