The pile of vacancies in the government departments and the overwhelming job applications from the aspirants display an appalling state of unemployment crisis in Karnataka. The aspirants in the state are struggling to hit the jackpot as the government is witnessing a race from thousands of graduates to fill in only a handful of posts. 

In a shocking revelation, the districts in the belt of Kalyana Karnataka have received over 25,000 applications for 15 government posts. According to reports, these 25,000 individuals are gearing up to appear for the exams on January 6 and 7 for 15 superintendent posts in the commerical taxes department. In the wake of huge vacancies, the recruitment drive from the government has been pouring in with thousands of applications. 

It has been reported that about 2.56 lakh state government posts remain vacant. Some of the crucial departments are reeling under a growing dearth of staff and while the education department has 75,000 vacancies, the health department has 35,000 vacancies, and 22,000 vacancies in the home department. The New Indian Express has highlighted that the other departments like revenue, rural development, finance, animal husbandry, and panchayat raj have around 10,000 vacancies each. 

Owing to the financial distress in the state, the finance department is struggling to fill the existing vacancies - most of the times putting the applications idle and in some times, few candidates are being hired. The unemployment crisis in Karnataka aligns with the national trend of growing unemployment rate, pushing to surge the work loads. 

According to the latest data published by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India's unemployment rate has hit a two-year high at 10.09% in November 2023 and the data has also exhibited concerning figures where the rural unemployment jumped from 6.2% to 10.82%, while the urban employment rate has gone up to 8.44% in November. 

The New Indian Express has quoted CS Shadakshari, the president of the Karnataka State Government Employees' Association, saying that some posts like bill collector in gram panchayats require graduation as an educational qualification, but even engineers and MBA graduates are sending applications. He shared a shocking truth where around 1.8 lakh people have applied for ten drivers' posts in the water resource department last year.