MUMBAI, 23 NOVEMBER, 2020 (GPN): Migration of talent is considered an important aspect in a country’s development. We saw its debilitating impact on economies and industries, when the world came to a grinding halt this year disrupting the seamless movement of workers and their services. 

As economic activity resumes across the globe, we reviewed cross-border search data on Indeed to understand where India attracts global talent from and the most sought-after international destinations for talent in India, with special focus on the India-US migration corridor.

Top global destinations that attract talent from and send talent to India: (pertaining to October 2020)

43% job seekers in India searched for opportunities in the United States, making it the most sought-after destination. With its immigration friendly policies, Canada appears to be the next choice for job seekers in India, although search interest was less than half at 18%. Great Britain (17%), UAE (10%) and Australia (3%) complete the top-5 list of global destinations. Singapore was a close sixth with 2% searches.

In return, the United States (17%) along with UAE (17%) emerged as the top destinations from where India attracts talent, followed by Great Britain (5%), Canada (5%) and Singapore (4%). 

At 16%, India also leads amongst these countries searching for jobs in the US, followed by Canada (8%), Puerto Rico (7%), Great Britain (6%) and Mexico (5%).

How talent in India searched for jobs in the United States (January 2018 – October 2020)

Search activity from India for jobs in the US was highest in 2018, peaking at 72% in December 2018. 2019 saw a steady decline in searches. Comparisons show a 63% decline in searches in December 2019 over the same month in the previous year. While overall search momentum was lowest in 2020, behaviour shows a 44% increase in search activity in October 2020 over the same month in the previous year.

Top job titles clicked on from India to the US: (pertaining to October 2020)

India is known to be a leading exporter of tech skills in IT & software industries. Needless to say, technical roles dominated the most searched for jobs from India in the US, with the top-5 as follows:

• Full Stack Developer (3%)
• Java Developer (2.5%)
• Development Ops Engineer (2%)
• Software Engineer (2%)
• Front End Developer (2%)

The business analyst (1.5%) was a close sixth marking a departure from the technical heavyweights on the list with the nurse (0.6%) being the only other anomaly.