While the Odisha government continues to make tall claims with regard to increase in employment rate, the India Employment Report-2024 has laid bare the concerning scenario of employment in the state. As per the report released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Institute of Human Development (IHD) earlier this week, Odisha has been placed at the bottom of the employment outcome. A major number of Odisha youths are neither getting jobs nor getting proper training to excel in skills. The percentage of educated unemployed youth in Odisha stood at 39.95 per cent in 2022, which is highest among all the states. Flash text - Unemployment rate of educated youths highest in Odisha. The percentage of unemployment rate of female youths (aged 15–29) with a secondary or higher education qualification was at 48.71 per cent in 2022, which was the third lowest in the list. The surveyors analysed the market trends, patterns and Indian labour markets of past two decades from 22 states of India. The analysis also included the employment impact during COVID crisis. The report stated that in 2005, Odisha was ranked at the lowest and stood at 21st spot in 2022. On two occasions before that, the state was placed in 21st spot in 2012 and 2019, respectively. Overall, the employment index showed signs of improvement between 2004-05 and 2021-22, but Odisha along with Bihar, Jharkhand and UP continued to remain at the bottom. Corroborating the fact is, the male employment condition index in Odisha was at the bottom out of 22 states in 2005 and it remained unchanged as of 2022. For the females, the state was placed at 22 in 2005 and stood at 21 in year 2022. According to the employment report, Odisha has overall employment migration at 33.1 per cent. The employment condition index is based on seven labour market outcome indicators including percentage of workers employed in regular formal work, proportion of casual workers, proportion of self-employed workers with income below the poverty line, percentage of workers employed in regular formal work, youth not in employment, education or training, unemployment rate of youths with a secondary or higher level of education and average monthly earnings of casual workers.