Mumbai airport job interview chaos as 25,000 applicants turn up

Scenes like this should be shocking, but they have become commonplace in today’s cutthroat Indian job market. This job interview in Mumbai for 600 airport handymen descended into chaos when approximately 25,000 people showed up. Applicants were asked to leave their resumes and vacate the area to avoid overcrowding. Videos of the massive crowd went viral. George Abram, a union leader, criticized the mismanagement, claiming ‘there was a 1km-long queue and police had to be called.’
The positions, which required only a 10th-grade education and offered a salary of Rs 22,500 (around $270) per month, attracted many candidates with significantly higher qualifications.

Unemployment in India remains stubbornly high – data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed a national unemployment rate of 9.2% in June 2024, up from 7% in May, with rural areas experiencing a significant increase. Unemployment was a hot-button issue at the recent Lok Sabha elections, but until a solution is found, scenes like this seem destined to remain commonplace. As one of the 25,000 applicants put it, ‘what do we do?’