Privatisation has closed the public-sector route for young people.

Our finding

Why we rated this “False”

Public sector employment has not closed

Divestment of selected enterprises is a specific policy affecting specific companies. It is not the same as government employment ceasing.

The Public Enterprises Survey for FY25 records approximately 15.42 lakh employees across central public sector enterprises. [2]

On recruitment, around 12 lakh appointment letters have been issued through 19 Rozgar Melas since October 2022, covering central ministries and departments, Railways, security forces, public sector undertakings, autonomous bodies and Union Territories. [1]

An entry route that issued roughly 12 lakh appointments in about four years is not closed.

Institutional expansion generates recurring demand

New public institutions create permanent staffing requirements, and a substantial number have been established.

Since 2014: 7 IITs, 8 IIMs, 16 IIITs, 8 central universities, 2 IISERs, 1 NIT and 12 new AIIMS. Five IITs are being expanded to accommodate a further 6,500 students. [3]

Each of these needs faculty, doctors, engineers, administrators and technical staff — on a continuing basis, not once at the point of construction. A new AIIMS is a standing source of public sector medical and support employment for as long as it operates.

Where the claim goes wrong

Privatisation of some enterprises is generalised into closure of the public sector as a career route. The employment and recruitment figures do not support that generalisation.

The change that is real

There is a genuine shift here, and it is about the character of public employment rather than its existence.

The composition of the CPSE workforce has moved towards contractual and casual engagement, with the share of regular employees falling. That is documented, and it is the substantive development.

For a young person, this changes what a public sector job offers. The security, pension and benefits that made government employment attractive attach to regular posts. A contract position in the same organisation, doing similar work, often carries none of them.

So the accurate statement is not that the door has closed. It is that a growing share of what lies behind it is materially different from what the phrase "public sector job" has traditionally meant.

That is a sharper and more useful criticism than closure, and it survives scrutiny in a way the claim as made does not.

In short

CPSEs employ about 15.42 lakh people, with roughly 12 lakh appointments issued through 19 Rozgar Melas since 2022, alongside dozens of new institutions creating recurring demand. The real change is contractualisation of public employment, not its disappearance.