Mumbai: India’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms, continue to grapple with labour shortage woes, with some also reporting worsened availability over festivities, elections and harvest season.
Larsen and Toubro (L&T)’s chief financial officer, R Shankar Raman, in a recent interaction with Press Trust of India (PTI) noted, the company’s workforce challenges continue. It is a sentiment multiple other engineering firms voiced. Strategies such as project-location planning, increased use of tech and incentives, are underplay to address these challenges.
“The shortage has not eased, and in many cases has worsened,” noted an executive from one of the large engineering firms, on the condition of anonymity. The executive added, “ Compared to a year ago, shortages have increased by roughly 10–15 percent, varying by region and project type. Project timelines are stretched due to manpower gaps and lack of planning support.”
EPC firms are witnessing one of its strongest periods of hiring activity in recent years, with hiring demand surging 51 percent since 2020, reveals CIEL HR’s EPC Sector Talent Study, 2025. The report highlights that the industry required 2.27 lakh professionals in the last four quarters, with Tier 1 cities accounting for 80 percent of this demand, led by Mumbai (23%) and Delhi (22%), according to a CIEL HR’s Latest Talent Study released in December.
Over the last three-four years, EPC firms have seen a significant growth in order book, with many of them currently executing all-time high order-books. For instance, L&T’s outstanding order book was more than Rs 6 lakh crore as of September. Availability of skilled manpower has failed to keep pace with this growth in new orders.
To tide over, EPC firms are resorting to multiple strategies. L&T’s CFO in the PTI interaction noted, taking projects closer to workers’ home regions, could help ease the shortage. Executives from KEC International in a November analyst call noted, the company is adopting more mechanization to tide over, including using drones for plastering jobs. “We have started doing a lot of erection by crane, which we used to do in the Middle East earlier. Or if you take civil, … we are using automatic bar bending machines, we have set up bar bending plants in some of our projects ( instead of looking for fitters/ bar benders workforce.)” However, the executive noted an improvement in availability. “The number keeps going up and down, we have 24,000 available of the required 30,000,” he told analysts.
