Rung 13 — Postgraduate, engineering
0.81 million people aged 21–34. 59.33% hold a regular salaried job, of which 53.13% of the rung is formal work — level with an engineering degree.
Who is counted
Section titled “Who is counted”| Filter | Value |
|---|---|
release_id |
calendar_2025 |
visit |
V1 |
gedu_lvl |
13 — postgraduate |
tedu_lvl |
03 — technical degree in engineering/technology |
age |
21–34 |
Sample: 709 people across 616 first-stage units, representing 0.81 million. An M.Tech or M.E., and 13.1% of everyone holding an engineering degree — the lowest progression rate of any degree field.
What they are doing
Section titled “What they are doing”| Share | People | |
|---|---|---|
| Formal work | 53.13% | 432k |
| Informal wage work | 5.74% | 47k |
| Self-employed, earning | 6.77% | 55k |
| Studying | 4.89% | 40k |
| Unemployed, seeking | 10.89% | 89k |
| Domestic duties | 14.36% | 117k |
Statistically level with the engineering degree’s 52.58%. The master’s adds two years and, on employment, essentially nothing — but see the wage table, where it adds a great deal.
Unemployment is 10.89%, well below the engineering degree’s 15.46%.
Gender
Section titled “Gender”| Share of rung | Formal work | Domestic duties | Median wage | People | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 58.8% | 61.18% | 0.00% | ₹45,000 | 478k |
| Female | 41.2% | 41.63% | 34.86% | ₹42,000 | 335k |
Women are 41.2% of this rung — the highest female share of any engineering qualification — and the wage gap is small, ₹42,000 against ₹45,000.
What formal work pays
Section titled “What formal work pays”| Tenure | n | p25 | Median | p75 | ≥₹50k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1 year | 20 | ₹20,000 | ₹25,000 | ₹38,000 | 20.5% |
| 1 to 3 years | 99 | ₹29,700 | ₹36,000 | ₹50,000 | 29.9% |
| Over 3 years | 218 | ₹35,000 | ₹50,000 | ₹72,000 | 58.3% |
₹50,000 median at 3+ years and 58.3% clearing ₹6 lakh — the highest of any rung on the ladder. Median rises 2.00×, also the steepest.
The entry cell holds 20 people. Read that row as indicative only.
Across a working life
Section titled “Across a working life”| At entry (24–26) | Age 30 | Age 40 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sample n | 122 | 198 | 99 |
| Population | 167k | 211k | 114k |
| — in formal work | 45 | 97 | 60 |
| In formal work | 42.88% | 54.05% | 63.07% |
| Mean wage | ₹35,435 | ₹58,994 | ₹72,790 |
The entry window is 24–26: a B.Tech finishes at 22 and an M.Tech takes two more years.
Every cell here is small. The direction is consistent with every other rung; the levels are not precisely measured.
The same rung at three points in a working life
Section titled “The same rung at three points in a working life”| Life stage | Regular salaried | Of which formal | People |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | 48.5% | 42.9% | 167k |
| Age 30 | 56.4% | 54.0% | 211k |
| Age 40 | 71.0% | 63.1% | 114k (n=99 — too thin to read as a rate) |
Regular salaried is a salaried job of any kind (pas='31'). Formal is the subset that is actually paid and carries a written contract or social security. The difference between the two columns is the informal salaried workforce.
These are three different cohorts, not one cohort ageing. Today’s 40-year-olds finished a different school system in a different labour market from this year’s entrants, so this table shows where each age group stands now. It does not say what today’s entrant will earn at 40.
Entry uses each rung’s own window — three years from that course’s normal completion age; age 30 is ages 29–31 and age 40 is ages 39–41, three-year bands for sample.
What they actually do
Section titled “What they actually do”Job function among those in formal work, rolled up from NCO 2015 three-digit occupation groups by build_job_function.py. NCO orders by skill level before function, so a raw occupation table splits one function across three divisions — software work sits in 251/252, 351/352 and 133. Shares sum to 100; nothing is suppressed.
| Function | Share | People | Public sector | Median wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software & IT | 45.23% | 195k | 1.5% | ₹48,000 |
| Management & business operations | 17.55% | 76k | 4.4% | ₹56,000 |
| Engineering, science & technical | 15.38% | 66k | 36.1% | ₹55,000 |
| Teaching & education | 7.81% | 34k | 58.1% | ₹35,000 |
| Sales & marketing | 3.64% | 16k | 25.7% | ₹32,800 |
| Clerical & office support | 3.16% | 14k | 67.5% | ₹30,000 |
| Finance & accounting | 3.07% | 13k | 22.4% | ₹35,000 |
| Law, public administration & policy | 1.21% | 5,238 | 65.3% | ₹54,000 |
| Health & medical | 0.86% | 3,696 | 15.0% | ₹53,760 |
| Transport & logistics | 0.65% | 2,816 | 100.0% | ₹60,000 |
| Skilled trades & production | 0.61% | 2,632 | 21.1% | ₹18,000 |
| Protective services & armed forces | 0.46% | 1,990 | 100.0% | ₹45,000 |
| Arts, media, culture & social | 0.25% | 1,091 | 49.5% | ₹35,400 |
| Hospitality, personal & care services | 0.11% | 481 | 100.0% | ₹18,000 |
Sample sizes
Section titled “Sample sizes”| Cut | n |
|---|---|
| The rung, 21–34 | 709 |
| — in formal work | 337 |
| Formal, tenure under 1 year | 20 |
| Earning ≥₹50,000 a month | 145 |
This is one of the thinnest rungs on the ladder. The employment rate rests on 709 people and is reasonable; the wage table’s entry row rests on 20 and is not.
What this rung does not tell you
Section titled “What this rung does not tell you”No branch detail, and no way to separate an M.Tech from an M.S. abroad.
Selection, not causation — and the selection here is severe, since only 13.1% of engineering graduates continue.
Provenance: assumptions governing this note are numbered in ../ASSUMPTIONS.md;
the queries behind every figure are in ../QUERIES.md; every claim’s confidence
grade, and the seven claims this analysis has retracted, are in
../FINDINGS.md. Check a number against FINDINGS before quoting it.