Mood of First-Time Voter: 45% college grads feel there are few job opportunities, 67% HS grads say no to caste-based reservation

The Lok Sabha election in a few months is set to see a massive 130 million first-time voters go to the polls. The stakes are already high for the National Democratic Alliance that seeks to secure five more years and a seemingly united Opposition that seeks to dislodge the ruling BJP and its allies at any cost.To get a better idea of how young first-time voters — people aged 18 to 21 — perceive of the forthcoming election, YouGov India and Firstpost conducted a nationwide survey between 5 and 16 December, 2018. There was a total of 1,332 respondents, from a panel of over 40,000, who answered questions ranging from politics and jobs, to religion and the media. The findings are being serialised in four sections:1) Politics and Ideology2) News and Media3) Religion4) Jobs and EconomyThe fourth part of the section titled 'Jobs and Economy' examines the differing views of high school and college graduates.In terms of the biggest impediment to finding jobs, 22 percent of high school graduates claim 'low pay scales' are to blame, while only 18 percent of college graduates feel this way. Twenty-two percent of high school graduates feel there should be caste-based reservation in government jobs and education, compared to 28 percent of college graduates.Thirty-five percent of high school graduates felt GST had a largely negative impact, while this number dropped to 27 percent for college graduates. Meanwhile, a quarter of college graduates fear not being as successful as their peers.To read the findings of the section of the survey titled 'Politics and Ideology', click here.To read the findings of the section of the survey titled 'News and Media', click here.To read the findings of the section of the survey titled 'Religion', click here