National Career Service (2015): Transforming India’s Employment Landscape – IMPRI Impact And Policy Research Institute

Policy Update
Ayush Bansal

Background

The National Career Service (NCS) is a flagship initiative launched by the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, in July 2015 under the recommendations of the Expert Group on Employment Services. As a part of the overhaul of the conventional National Employment Service, the scheme intends to offer a technology-enabled end-to-end employment solution by connecting job seekers, employers, counsellors, skills providers, and career centres on one digital platform.

The NCS portal acts as a hub for job matching, career counselling, skill training, and labour market information. It also integrates with other government initiatives like Skill India, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), and Digital India.

Functioning

NCS operates through a two-pronged approach:

1. Digital Platform (www.ncs.gov.in): A single-window portal featuring job search, AI-assisted résumé building, job fairs, career guidance, multimedia content, and employer integration. It facilitates both online and offline services via CSCs and Career Centres.
2. Career Centres and Employment Exchanges: Over 1,000 traditional Employment Exchanges have been transformed into modern Career Centres to deliver in-person job matching, counselling, and outreach services. Additionally, 1,182 trained career counsellors have been onboarded, conducting 41 lakh counselling sessions to date.
3. NCS also paces by building public–private partnerships: 25 MoUs have been signed until mid-2025 with prominent platforms such as TCS iON, FoundIt, APNA, Swiggy, Rapido, Amazon, Quikr, and many more to increase job opportunity access.

Performance

Table 1: National Career Service – Key Statistics (as of July 2025)

Sources: Ministry of Labour & Employment (2025), Economic Times (2024), HRKatha (2025).

This growth reflects the NCS’s increasing role in formalising India’s labour market and providing a transparent, inclusive job marketplace.

Impact

The NCS has also had a multi-layered impact on India’s employment ecosystem:

• Digital Inclusion in Job Search – With its blanket coverage of rural areas through the means of CSCs as well as mobile vans, it bridges the digital divide and provides equal access to opportunities.
• Women’s Workforce Participation – Targeted campaigns, flexible job listings, and gig economy linkages have increased registrations by women in several states.
• Data-Driven Policy Making – Labour market analytics from NCS have been used by state governments to identify skill gaps and design targeted training.
• Integration of Informal Workers – Gig workers and self-employed individuals are increasingly using NCS for job discovery, bringing more workers into the semi-formal fold.
• Private Sector Engagement – The signing of massive MoUs with industry players has ramped up recruitment and reduced hiring costs for companies.

Emerging Issues

1. Quality of Job Listings – While vacancies are growing, there are sometimes repetitive or of low wage quality, leading to mismatch concerns.
2. Digital Literacy Gap – Rural and older job seekers sometimes struggle with online registration and application processes.
3. Underutilisation of Counselling Services – Despite availability, awareness about professional career counselling remains low in smaller towns.
4. Integration Challenges – Aligning NCS with all state-level job portals and skill schemes is still a work in progress.
5. Geopolitical Labour Shifts – Global shifts in migration patterns could bring back large segments of the skilled diaspora, requiring rapid absorption into domestic markets.

Future Prospects

1. Strengthening Labour Market Efficiency – AI-driven matching could reduce recruitment time and improve placement quality.
2. Absorbing Returning Workforce – Global uncertainties could retain more workers staying in India, boosting the domestic talent pool.
3. Demand-Driven Skilling – Sector-specific training under the Skill India and PMKVY can be guided by NCS information.
4. Urban-Rural Gap Bridging – Expansion of Career Centres and CSCs integration can equalise the grounds.
5. Support to Industrial Corridors – A ready talent database can accelerate Make in India projects.
6. Gig Economy Formalisation – Working with platforms can provide legal and social protections to gig workers.
7. Data-Backed Policy Making – NCS analytics are able to predict labour market trends for future-proof policymaking.

Way Forward

• Quality Assurance in Listings – Introduce stricter verification for job postings to filter out duplicate or irrelevant listings.
• Skill-NCS Integration – Build a real-time link between NCS and skill certification databases to instantly validate job seeker credentials.
• Rural Outreach Campaigns – Expand awareness drives through Panchayati Raj institutions and NGOs to improve adoption.
• Advanced Analytics for Employers – Provide industry-specific insights and talent maps for targeted recruitment strategies.
• Multi-Language Support – Enhance portal usability by adding more regional languages and voice-assisted features for those with low literacy levels.
• Inclusion of Apprenticeships and Internships – Deepen engagement with educational institutions for early career support.

References

About the Contributor

Ayush Bansal is a research intern at IMPRI (Impact and Policy Research Institute), and is currently pursuing his master’s in economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. The article is written as part of the Policy Updates initiative under the supervision of the IMPRI research team.

Acknowledgement

The author sincerely thanks Aasthaba Jadeja and IMPRI fellows for their valuable contribution.

Disclaimer:

All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organization.

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