By 2025, approximately 55 percent of Indian graduates are projected to be globally employable, up from 51.2 percent in 2024, underscoring India’s growing contribution to the international workforce. This significant trend was highlighted in the recently released India Skills Report 2025, which reflects the country’s increasing role in addressing global demand for skilled professionals.
The report, prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry in partnership with Wheebox and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), provides a detailed analysis of employability among Indian graduates. Management graduates top the employability charts, with 78 percent deemed globally employable. Engineering graduates follow at 71.5 percent, closely trailed by MCA (Master of Computer Applications) graduates at 71 percent, and science graduates at 58 percent.
Highlighting geographic trends, the report identifies Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi as key hubs for employable talent. Within these states, cities like Pune, Bengaluru, and Mumbai are recognized as leaders in nurturing a skilled workforce capable of meeting both domestic and international demands.
Gender-based analysis reveals notable differences in employability trends. For men, the employability rate is expected to rise from 51.8 percent in 2024 to 53.5 percent in 2025. In contrast, women are projected to experience a decline in employability, with rates dropping from 50.9 percent to 47.5 percent over the same period.
The findings are based on data from the Wheebox Global Employability Test, which evaluated the skills of 650,000 candidates. This comprehensive assessment highlights the aspirations of Indian students, with 93 percent expressing a strong interest in pursuing internships as part of their career preparation.
Nirmal Singh, the chief convenor of the India Skills Report, emphasized the importance of enhancing skill training programs to bolster international mobility. “The decade ahead should focus on quality skill training to enable better international mobility, particularly through long-term, certified skill programs with embedded language training,” Singh stated.
Complementing this analysis, another report titled Decoding Jobs – 2025, also released by CII, sheds light on hiring trends and intentions for the financial year 2026. According to this report, the hiring intent among firms stands at 9.8 percent, with certain sectors demonstrating higher recruitment ambitions. Global capability centers, heavy engineering firms, and banking and financial industries exhibit the highest hiring intent at 12 percent, followed by core industries at 11.5 percent and the FMCG sector at 10 percent.
These reports collectively paint an optimistic picture of India’s ability to meet global workforce demands while addressing skill development gaps and gender disparities.
