Trump and Brexit bite persuade highly skilled Indian IT talent to stay at home

BANGALORE, INDIA: Being one of the world’s large IT talent hubs, India, historically has seen a steady outflow of IT professionals to countries such as the US, UK and Australia. For the past several decades, the US and UK have been the ultimate destination for Indians who sought better job opportunities and comfortable lifestyles.

But, recent data from job site, Indeed shows that there has been a 38 percent decrease in Indians looking to move to the US and 42 percent decrease in Indians looking to work in the UK in the last year.

The prospect of Brexit could be deterring Indian job seekers looking to the UK as countries such as Germany and Ireland have seen an increase in Indians actively looking for jobs, said the report. Germany has seen a 10 percent increase in Indians looking for jobs while Ireland has seen a 20% increase for the same period.

The decrease in the number of Indians looking to move abroad also extends to the Gulf, as evidenced by the 21 percent decrease in searches to the UAE.

According to the research by Indeed there has also been an overall 5 percent decrease in Indians looking to move abroad in search of job opportunities.

On the other hand, job search to India has seen an uptick with a 25 percent rise in people from the UK. The trend is even more pronounced for the Asia Pacific region, with a 170 percent increase in interest in moving to India.

Sashi Kumar, Managing Director, Indeed India said, “This new data shows an apparent reversal of that trend. The steadily growing Indian economy and political uncertainty abroad has persuaded highly skilled Indian talent to stay at home to find jobs and this in turn has fostered a thriving start-up scene."

“This growing popularity of India as an employment destination is further bolstered by government initiatives such as ‘Make in India’, which offers ease of doing business in India. While it is too early to predict, these figures show a trend of Indian nationals who were working in the UK or the Asia-Pacific region, expressing a desire to return to India,” added Sashi.

However, despite the declining figures, the US still tops the list of countries that Indians would like to migrate to, with 49 percent of Indians searching for jobs overseas looking at the US. The other countries where Indians look to work include UAE (16%), Canada (9%), Great Britain (5%), Singapore(4%), Australia (3%), Qatar (2%), South Africa (1%), Bahrain (1%).