Indian State Posts Openings For 368 Low-Level Jobs . . . 2.3 Million Apply

As we struggle with our own unemployment issues, it is easy to lose sight of how much worse the situation is in countries like India. That comparative point was driven home this week when the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh announced that it had a few hundred job openings for low-level office workers who run errands and make tea. The response was a deluge of 2.3 million people applying for the 368 jobs.

These applicants included 255 applicants with a doctorate degree and over 200,000 had graduate degrees — for the jobs that pay about 16,000 rupees ($240) a month and require a fifth-grade education.

The government has announced that it will have to fill the jobs, at least for the initial cut of a couple million people, off their resumes since it would take more than four years to interview every applicant.

In the meantime, some 13 million people enter the job market every year in India.