The huge turnout of job aspirants at the two-day mega Udyog Mela, which began here on Saturday, highlighted the large-scale unemployment in Bangalore Rural and Chickballapur districts.
Over 10,000 candidates from the two districts made a beeline for the mela on Saturday, and an equal number of them are expected to come on Sunday.
At the end of the first day's session, it was found that more than 50 per cent of the candidates were “unemployable” as they were either unskilled or poorly qualified.
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A majority of them had studied up to SSLC/PUC.
Following the initiative by Union Minister for Corporate Affairs M. Veerappa Moily, who represents Chickballapur in the Lok Sabha, the State Government in association with Alva's Education Foundation, Mudbidri, and SJC Institute of Technology, Chickballapur, organised the job fair for unemployed youth from the Chickballapur parliamentary constituency to get jobs.
As many as 145 companies are participating in the event and around 15,000 jobs are on offer.
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The highest number of jobs on offer (4,699), is in the manufacturing and production sector, followed by IT/ITeS (3,798), security agencies (3,732), garment (2,874), and retail (1,736).
“We are trying our best to ensure that the maximum number of applicants is recruited. Those who fail to get jobs, are being advised to enrol at the skill development and training centre in Chickballapur,” Vishnukanth S. Chatapalli, Executive Director, Karnataka Vocational Training and Skill Development Corporation, said.
‘Not a good sign'
“This turnout is not a good sign, and there is need to create a skilled workforce to address the unemployment problem,” Dr. Chatapalli told The Hindu.
Hundreds of engineering graduates, MBAs, and diploma and Industrial Training Institute trained candidates were among those who attended the mela.