Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 calls upon economies to “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all”. Even fastest growing economies are failing to translate growth into development. When jobless growth persists in the economy, the economy tends to enter into a vicious cycle where unemployment leads to poverty, which further leads to no access to education and health facilities and then unemployment again. This paper investigates the empirical work that defines relationship of unemployment with other variables. Okun’s law which states that there exists a negative relation between unemployment and growth is also discussed. The study also tries to give a deeper insight about unemployment in India after independence. It tries to look into the determinants of unemployment in India for the period 1991 to 2018. Variables like Gross Domestic Product, Inflation, Population, Foreign Direct Investment, Trade Openness, Labour Force Participation Rate, Gross Fixed Capital Formation, Life Expectancy, Interest Rates and Secondary Enrolment are taken as independent variables. Stepwise regression was applied on the data. Results show a positive coefficient for GDP, life expectancy, GFCF and interest rates. Whereas, inflation, FDI, population and secondary school enrolment have a negative coefficient.

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Keywords: Unemployment, GDP, Inflation, Labour Force, India.