‘Forget monthly salary’: Saurabh Mukherjea warns middle class of jobless future
He predicted a rapid collapse of conventional salaried employment, replaced by a fragmented gig economy where everyone from drivers and coders to podcasters and financial advisers becomes self-employed.
- Nov 2, 2025,
- Updated Nov 2, 2025 8:27 AM IST
India’s white-collar job machine has ground to a halt. And according to Saurabh Mukherjea, founder and chief investment officer of Marcellus Investment Managers, the age of steady salaried employment in India is effectively over.
“Employment growth has basically stopped,” Mukherjea warned in a recent podcast, calling the situation both visible and irreversible. Over the last five years, white-collar jobs have barely grown, and he believes it is “highly unlikely” that they ever will in any meaningful way.
The reason, he said, lies in automation and corporate efficiency. Large, profitable companies such as HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Titan, and Asian Paints can now expand their businesses without adding people. “It is highly unlikely these companies will employ a lot of people,” he said. “Automation makes it so easy for them to grow without headcount.”
Meanwhile, eight million new graduates will enter the Indian workforce every year, creating what Mukherjea called a massive mismatch between opportunity and aspiration. “The country will have to figure out how to give livelihood to these new people in the absence of a formal corporate construct,” he said. The next few years, he warned, will test India’s ability to reinvent work itself.
He predicted a rapid collapse of conventional salaried employment, replaced by a fragmented gig economy where everyone from drivers and coders to podcasters and financial advisers becomes self-employed. “We are heading into a world of gig jobs,” he said. “The salaried employment era is behind us.”
For Mukherjea, this is not a distant scenario—it is already visible. “I could see it 10 years ago,” he said. “And I can see it more clearly now.”
Yet he believes India has unique advantages for surviving this transformation. A young population with a median age of 29, the world’s cheapest mobile broadband, and digital systems like Aadhaar and UPI could hold the country together as work becomes decentralised. These tools, he said, are “the glue that stitches the gig workers together.”
His message to Indian professionals is stark but pragmatic. “Conventional white-collar employment will be a challenge,” he said. “We should prepare our children—and ourselves—for a future where we are gig workers for much of our lives.”
India’s white-collar job machine has ground to a halt. And according to Saurabh Mukherjea, founder and chief investment officer of Marcellus Investment Managers, the age of steady salaried employment in India is effectively over.
“Employment growth has basically stopped,” Mukherjea warned in a recent podcast, calling the situation both visible and irreversible. Over the last five years, white-collar jobs have barely grown, and he believes it is “highly unlikely” that they ever will in any meaningful way.
The reason, he said, lies in automation and corporate efficiency. Large, profitable companies such as HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Titan, and Asian Paints can now expand their businesses without adding people. “It is highly unlikely these companies will employ a lot of people,” he said. “Automation makes it so easy for them to grow without headcount.”
Meanwhile, eight million new graduates will enter the Indian workforce every year, creating what Mukherjea called a massive mismatch between opportunity and aspiration. “The country will have to figure out how to give livelihood to these new people in the absence of a formal corporate construct,” he said. The next few years, he warned, will test India’s ability to reinvent work itself.
He predicted a rapid collapse of conventional salaried employment, replaced by a fragmented gig economy where everyone from drivers and coders to podcasters and financial advisers becomes self-employed. “We are heading into a world of gig jobs,” he said. “The salaried employment era is behind us.”
For Mukherjea, this is not a distant scenario—it is already visible. “I could see it 10 years ago,” he said. “And I can see it more clearly now.”
Yet he believes India has unique advantages for surviving this transformation. A young population with a median age of 29, the world’s cheapest mobile broadband, and digital systems like Aadhaar and UPI could hold the country together as work becomes decentralised. These tools, he said, are “the glue that stitches the gig workers together.”
His message to Indian professionals is stark but pragmatic. “Conventional white-collar employment will be a challenge,” he said. “We should prepare our children—and ourselves—for a future where we are gig workers for much of our lives.”