Skilled-Labor Shortage Hits India

India is beginning to see a shortage of properly skilled labor in its back-office outsourcing industry and could fall short by 250,000 workers in four years, officials said Tuesday.

"The problem is not with the quantity but with the quality," said Rajeeva Ratna Shah, a top official of the federal Planning Commission, which directs India's economic strategy.

Only a fraction of the 3 million graduates produced by India each year are ready to be employed in the outsourcing industry, with others needing several months of training, Shah said.

India employs 348,000 people in such back-office outsourcing alone and adds 150,000 jobs each year. The industry earned $5.2 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March.

"Companies are able to select only eight or nine people out of 100 who apply, and that's pretty low selection ratio," Karnik said.

Hmmm, maybe India can look to outsource their outsourcing work to Silicon Valley. Lots of highly qualified people looking for work there.

Via Skilled-labor shortage hits India