Keshav Raj graduated from Tamil Nadu’s prestigious SRM Institute of Science and Technology with a degree in computer science four years ago.
He scored well and interned at startups in India and Indonesia to improve his chances of getting a job. Raj’s hope is to land a job in a government agency or in the data division of a multinational company.
“My parents took out a loan of 1.9 million rupees ($22,491) for my degree, so I studied hard, interned, and soon found a job with a good salary,” the 27-year-old told the show.
After several entrance exams and interviews, Raj still hadn’t landed a well-paid job. Out of desperation, he worked as a customer service executive at one of Amazon’s global competence centers, serving customers.
He now earns 22,000 rupees a month — just enough to keep his family going and pay off his student loans.
“My mother is a clinic assistant and my father is an auto driver. They don’t earn much, so I need to earn enough to pay the bills. If I continue working in India, I won’t be able to make ends meet – competition is very high and it’s hard to find a well-paying job,” he said.
Raj is looking for work outside India and says he is “willing to go anywhere and do anything”.
He is one of hundreds of thousands of educated Indians looking for jobs outside the South Asian powerhouse for better pay, better career progression and a better standard of living.
Data from job search portal Foundit shows that this year, the number of international job postings posted on its platform by consultants and companies seeking Indian talent has grown 11.4%. At the same time, the number of job applications from Indian users of the platform has also grown 59.4%.
“The economic slowdown has led to an increase in overseas job applications as professionals seek stability and growth in international markets,” he said, adding that Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates are the top destinations for Indians seeking opportunities.
Besides the sluggish job market, Sinha noted that Indians have been looking for opportunities to join global companies — either by relocating or remotely — to gain “global exposure, exposure to advanced technologies and higher earning potential”.
Notably, there were more applicants for junior or mid-management positions (with 0 to 10 years of work experience), which could be because these job seekers are younger, more ambitious and more adaptable to different work environments.
In terms of industry-based mobility, Sinha found that professional positions, especially those in STEM industries such as technology, life sciences and engineering, had a higher number of applicants.
“[Professionals] remain highly sought after globally. Their expertise, adaptability and cost competitiveness make them valuable assets for employers seeking talent in areas such as software development, cloud computing, data science and medical research,” he said.
A long-standing problem
India’s brain drain is not unique to the country. It has been a persistent problem given the growing number of well-educated and ambitious millennials in emerging and developing markets.
In India, the phenomenon can be traced back to the early 2000s, when professionals from the medical and engineering fields headed to the United States in search of opportunities. Things have changed since then, and “for more than a decade, India has lost a diverse workforce of all skill levels,” said development economist Jayati Ghosh.
“Our young generation is ambitious and wants a better life than their parents. They are pursuing higher education. Their families sold land or assets so that they could go to school, but now they can’t find jobs.”
“India’s job crisis is because the number of jobs in the country has not kept pace with the country’s GDP growth of 5-7% per year,” said Ghosh, adding that the so-called job growth in recent data is not from real job creation but from the self-employed, including those who run their own small businesses or provide unpaid labor in family businesses.
Her comments come as data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows that India’s employment-to-population ratio is only 52.8%, while the labor force dependency ratio is 1.52. The labor force dependency ratio refers to the ratio of dependents to total employment.
With only half of the country’s working-age population employed, bridging the gap between labor opportunities and economic development trajectory is a daunting task.
India is the world’s largest diaspora, with about 18 million people living outside their country of birth, according to the United Nations.
“Many young people, including some of the most skilled, are trying to leave the country, leaving behind important skills gaps despite the huge number of unemployed people,” Ghosh noted.
Notable talent who have left India in the past few decades include Alphabet
Microsoft CEO Sundar Pichai
CEO Satya Nadella and Chanel executive Leena Nair.
The problems behind this are multifaceted, Ghosh said. A key issue is that employment is not considered a “primary policy objective” by the government.
“India’s GDP growth is 6.7% — but most of that has gone to the richest 10% of the population. The government’s policies are geared towards big businesses owned by groups like Adani, Ambani and Tata, rather than small, medium and micro businesses that employ about 85-90% of the population,” she said.
The economist also pointed to gaps in public employment, with “about 7 million vacancies” in government hospitals, schools and railways. Ghosh said hiring more people would mean better services, adequate facilities, better education and healthcare.
“At the same time, you are creating more jobs and that has a multiplier effect, which increases demand. That ultimately creates jobs and a bubble of growth, not just a trickle-down effect,” she added.
Last century terminology
With large numbers of Indians moving abroad in search of employment, the Indian government is now adopting what External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar calls a “modern way” of looking at movement and mobility.
“Draw a line – this is the inside, that is the outside, and when people go out, we lose something; I think we need to overcome that,” he said earlier this year at a lecture series at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.
Other benefits of India’s global distribution of its workforce include economic gains from increased remittances, Kumar added. Data from the World Bank predicts that remittances to India will increase slightly from $123 billion last year to $124 billion this year and reach $129 billion by 2025, driven by strong labor markets in the United States and Europe.
The future of India’s labor force
Whether Indian migrants will boost or drag down the country’s economy is a long-standing debate. But for the South Asian country, the priority is to ensure that its people are able to work and advance at home and abroad while meeting their social and economic needs.
At the policy level, ORF’s Kumar recommends that India provide skill-upgrading programs for recent graduates and those already in the workforce to ensure they can meet changing business needs and consumer demands.
Beyond that, she recommends that the government invest in urban planning and building better infrastructure to make cities more livable and attractive for people to settle down.
“Living in Indian cities is extremely challenging. The standard of living in Indian cities, whether it is environmental degradation, poor infrastructure, pollution or traffic congestion, has always put pressure on people. So until we solve this problem, some of our best people will leave and look for a better life outside,” Kumar added.
Meanwhile, foundit’s Sinha thinks organizations have a role to play, too. To compete with international companies, he advises them to develop a compelling value proposition, such as offering candidates clear career paths and long-term leadership development opportunities.
These improvements address deep, systemic problems in India and will take time to implement. If managed and executed well, they can create a better, more competitive workforce — providing opportunities for people like Raj.
The troubles for the Adani Group are growing. Fitch Ratings has placed several of the group’s bonds on rating watch negative, meaning their ratings could be downgraded. Deals and investments tied to the Adani Group, such as an airport deal in Kenya, have either been canceled or suspended. “The U.S. prosecution is likely to limit the group’s access to new financing in the near term,” said Leonard Law, senior credit analyst at Lucro Analytics. The group denies all wrongdoing.
The Competition Commission of India has rejected Apple’s request to suspend its antitrust investigation. India’s antitrust regulator, the Competition Commission of India, concluded that the Cupertino-based company used its dominant position in the App Store market to force app developers to comply with unfavorable conditions. Apple asked for a stay of the investigation because it accused the lead complainant of not complying with the Competition Commission of India’s order to destroy past investigation reports.
Reddit is looking to expand its market in India. Only half of Reddit’s users come from international markets, lower than the 80% to 90% of other US platforms. Reddit COO Jen Wong said India has a large English-speaking internet population, so it is “growing very fast” and “a huge opportunity” for the company. The platform hopes to enter the field of local advertising, such as serving Indian brand ads to Indian users.
