Over-engineering: India has a new employment problem

A surplus of students, low educational quality, and the looming threat of AI all threaten a field already facing a job crisis

India needs to create 115 million jobs by 2030 as more people enter the workforce. It also needs to boost services and manufacturing to keep the economy expanding. However, the country faces another crisis, as unemployment among engineering graduates is on the rise. 

India produces 1.5 million engineering graduates annually, but only about 60% are employable and only about 45% meet industry standards.

Only 10% of the engineers expected to graduate this fiscal year are anticipated to get jobs, according to a report by TeamLease, which claims to be India’s largest degree apprenticeship service provider. 

The rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also posed significant challenges to the sector. A report by Great Learning published in October showed that 67.5% of engineers feel that their jobs have been negatively impacted by AI.

Even worse, engineering professors are being forced to work as couriers after losing their jobs, as there are no students to teach: core engineering seats have gone vacant. 

All this comes amid a push by the government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for Atmanirbhar Bharat – a campaign to make India and its citizens “self-reliant” in all sectors, be it economics or infrastructure. 

Reputational pressure 

Engineering and medical degrees, as well as civil service jobs, are commonly promoted among Indian parents looking to secure their children’s future; these are also the top career choices of students.

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The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), which tests knowledge and areas of interest for admission to master’s programs and for recruitment by some public sector companies, in 2024 saw an increase of 23% in enrolment, with over 826,000 applications.

Seeking admission to prestigious coaching centers, and then colleges for engineering and medicine, eats into most students and parents’ time and money. Some parents, however, wish their children will become engineers from the moment they're born. The hype is such that becoming a doctor, engineer or civil servant makes for a lifetime reputation.

A National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) survey conducted in 2019 found that India produces around 1.5 million engineering graduates annually. Of these, only 250,000 get jobs.

In 2023, the former vice-chairman of Niti Aayog (the government’s top policy think tank) Rajiv Kumar stated that about 45% of graduates with management degrees and 48% who studied engineering are unemployed. Oversupply and competition are cited as two major reasons for this. 

Engineering jobs

The situation seems grim, with graduates from India’s prestigious institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay facing 36% unemployment. Underlining the dire situation, IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Lucknow and BITS Pilani have sought alumni help for placements. It’s grimmer for graduates of core courses such as Mechanical, Electrical, and Civil Engineering.

“The situation is bad not just for me, but for the country’s future as well. What will happen when there are no roads or vehicles?” Srinivas (name changed), a 45-year-old engineering professor from Hyderabad in south India, asked. 

He lost his job in 2023 after his college stopped offering courses in mechanical engineering. The state of Telangana has reportedly dropped 70% of seats in core engineering courses since 2020, forcing the faculty into lower-income jobs. 

“Many of my friends lost their jobs. Some work as delivery agents and security staff, some run tea stalls, and some turn to farming- but can’t earn a sustainable income from it,” Srinivas told RT. 

He is now a guest faculty member teaching mechanical engineering. He used to earn around ₹70,000 ($830) when he had a regular job, but now earns just around ₹20,000 ($237). “I am unable to pay fees for my children with this income,” he said, adding that the situation is similar in neighboring Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, where he has sought employment. 

Systemic flaws  

Meenu S., a 34-year-old with a master’s degree in technology from a government college in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, quit her job to pursue one in manufacturing. She opined that unemployment in the engineering sector is the outcome of multiple issues that need to be addressed. 

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“The teachers at private colleges fail to convey knowledge while their counterparts in government colleges are far more capable,” Meenu told RT. “The method of learning, the pattern, and the preparation for exams are different in engineering. A student who scores high in the exams may not be good in the lab. Practical knowledge is lost as the system does not focus on that. When graduates enter the job market, they are hired based on their grades without a test of their practical knowledge.”

Meenu said that engineering graduates don’t get an orientation opportunity like medical graduates do by working as medical interns.

“Graduates feel unprepared to approach companies. They are like a metal that needs to be molded to fit. Candidates are required to clear GATE for recruitment by the central government’s public sector companies. Some can’t appear for GATE due to financial reasons,” she said. 

“For a government job, a candidate needs to clear many hurdles to land the interview. It’s easier for a private (sector) job. The number of tests is overwhelming, which makes one think that an engineering degree is a burden,” she said. 

Ramkumar, a civil engineer from Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, left an engineering job in a quality control department at a private firm soon after graduating with 75% marks. 

“I never wanted to be an engineer, but family pressure forced me to pursue an engineering course,” he told RT. “I wanted to study video gaming, but my family doesn’t approve of it.”

He is now studying coding to become an IT professional, and is happy. 

Focus shift 

The feeling in the industry is that some state governments and private institutions focus too much on computer science engineering (CSE) courses. 

“The problem is governments don’t concentrate on engineering studies,” the president of the Telangana School’s Technical Colleges Employees Association, Aineni Santhosh Kumar, told RT. “Colleges are keen on CSE courses and allied branches. Core engineering courses like civil, mechanical, etc. are neglected. No attention is paid to improving the quality of such courses but on increasing their fees. The colleges increase the number of seats for the allied courses at the cost of core courses. This leads to job losses in mechanical and civil engineering faculties.” 

He added that the lack of quality in education prompts many to leave their studies halfway though.

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“Private colleges in Telangana stopped admission for core engineering courses in 2020,” Srinivas said. “The situation is better in neighboring Andhra Pradesh. In Telangana, of 150 engineering colleges, only 10-20 offer mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering courses. This is not because they don’t have enough students, but they profit more from computer engineering courses.”

The registrar of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad asked the All India Council for Technical Education to cancel its approval for an additional 20,000 seats in CSE and related branches across Telangana for 2024-25. The university was concerned over the deterioration in educational quality and emphasized the acute shortage of qualified faculty members as a critical issue, reported the Economic Times. It also highlighted a larger concern regarding the diminishing emphasis on core engineering disciplines. 

On the contrary, in Bihar (in east India), the government in 2021 approved an increase of nearly 20,000 seats in the undergraduate colleges of four universities. This created an oversupply of graduates resulting in inadequate job opportunities. 

“After the big increase in seats, there were 50,000 candidates to compete for a single government job. It’s tough to pass the cut-off mark. Infrastructure in the private sector is not attractive for job aspirants,” Ashish Kumar (name changed), a 23-year-old civil engineering graduate, told RT.

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Ashish graduated in 2023 and is now preparing for GATE. “I studied engineering thinking it would offer me a better future. I am from a middle-class family and I prefer a government job. It’s not that there is a dearth of openings, but they were not publicized, maybe because of a political agenda,” he said. Ashish unsuccessfully attempted to take the GATE twice. 

Meenu thinks the answer is an overhaul of engineering education. Srinivas requested that authorities and state governments come up with corrective mechanisms to improve the quality of education, focusing on core courses, as he believes it is an issue for the nation’s development.