Engineering graduates account for 22 per cent of the total job-seekers among professional and technical degree holders in Kerala, according to the figures published in the Economic Review-2025. As per the figures compiled from the Directorate of Employment till August 2025, among the work-seekers, 29,583 are engineering graduates, 5,514 are medical graduates, and 96,189 are other professional candidates.

Live registers of employment exchanges in Kerala show that the total number of job-seekers in Kerala as on August 31, 2025, is 22.98 lakh. The figures indicate a larger number of women jobseekers than men. Of the total job-seekers, 63.89 per cent are women. The distribution of job seekers by educational level indicates that only 5.47 per cent have qualifications below SSLC. About 94.47 per cent of the job seekers have qualifications of SSLC and above.

The district-wise details show that Thiruvananthapuram district has the highest number of job-seekers, followed by Kollam District. The total number of job seekers in Thiruvananthapuram is 3,77,846, of which 2,41,305 are women, and 1,36,541 are men. The lowest numbers are registered in Wayanad - 60,794 persons.

The ER-2025 shows that the unemployment rate has declined in seven years. The annual report on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) published for the period July 2023-June 2024 recorded Kerala's unemployment rate across rural and urban areas at 29.9 per cent, the highest among all the states in the country. The unemployment rate for the country in this period was 10.2 per cent.

ER figures, however, tell a different story. Compared to 2017–18, the unemployment rate has declined by 4.2 percentage points, from 11.4 per cent to 7.2 per cent in 2023–24 in Kerala.

The report also cites PSC appointment figures. Between May 2016 and July 2025, Kerala PSC sent advice to 2.89 lakh candidates. In 2024, Kerala PSC sent more than half of all PSC appointments across India. The Labour Force Participation (LFPR) in Kerala increased from 46.5 per cent to 56.2 per cent for the period 2017-18 to 2023-24, the ER shows.