From Vacancies To Appointments: Where UP's 9.5 Lakh Government Jobs Landed

With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election getting closer, the political fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) is getting sharper. 

From making AI-generated videos targeting each other to raising questions over jobs and unemployment, both parties are stepping up their attacks.

Akhilesh Yadav, President of the Samajwadi Party, has been questioning Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over unemployment and the lack of jobs for young people.

On Tuesday, he again attacked the government over unemployment, saying the ground reality did not match the government's claims.

The Yogi government has responded by putting its recruitment numbers on the table. 

The chief minister has said that 9.5 lakh youths have got government jobs since 2017. He has also said that the government will give more than one lakh more government jobs in the next six months.

Where Are The 9.5 Lakh Jobs 

But where have these 9.5 lakh jobs actually gone? The biggest share has gone to the police and education sectors. 

More than 2.25 lakh people have been recruited in the police, while more than 1.5 lakh teachers and assistant teachers have been appointed. UPPSC & UPSSSC accounted for more than 94,000 appointments.

Together, these four categories account for more than 4.69 lakh appointments. That leaves around 4.81 lakh from the government's total figure of 9.5 lakh across other government departments and services. 

The recruitment push is not over yet. Yogi Adityanath has said that another one lakh-plus appointments will be made in the next six months. 

Unemployment Rate

But government jobs are only one part of the employment picture. The bigger question is what happened to youth unemployment in the state since 2017. 

PLFS data shows that the unemployment rate among people aged 15-29 in Uttar Pradesh was 16.7 per cent in 2017-18. It came down to 9.1 per cent in 2023-24, and stood at 7.7 per cent in 2025.

India saw a similar fall, though from a slightly higher starting point.

Youth unemployment was 17.8 per cent nationally in 2017-18 and stood at 9.9 per cent in 2025. So, in 2025, which made UP's youth unemployment rate was 2.2 percentage points lower than the national average.