Unemployment among engineers in Chennai has had some strange fallouts. It’s seen overqualified individuals applying for every kind of work possible, in a desperate bid to join the working class in a market where jobs are few and people are many.
According to The Hindu, 1400 candidates have applied for jobs as parking attendants, more than 70% of who have completed graduation and over 50% are engineers. The qualification needed is SSLC.
Until recently, almost all of the parking attendants in the city were retired army personnel who had finished high school. But from Monday onwards, many qualified engineers will also be manning parking spaces.
These engineers will also serve another purpose, which is to promote a newly introduced parking management system.
Many of the applicants for the parking attendants posts have also completed their master’s in engineering. These people may be ideal candidates for promoting the digital mode of parking management.
One of the applicants lamented the dire job situation, telling the publication,
I have completed civil engineering. I do not have a job because of the market condition in the real estate industry.
Almost 1000 people have been hired for these parking attendant posts, and the high number of qualified engineers among them is a bleak reminder of just how hopeless the employment situation is.