Estimated 14 years to fill 300 jobs after 2m apply

Local authorities could take up to 14 years to fill 368 low-level government vacancies after two million people applied for the jobs.

Authorities in the Indian state Uttar Pradesh have been inundated by applications after they advertised the clerical vacancies.

2.3 million people have responded to the ads. The roles only require applicants to have primary school qualifications and the ability to ride a bicycle.

But that hasn’t stopped 152,000 graduates and 255 people with doctor degrees applying for the positions.

This has left local government with the time-consuming job of ploughing through all the applications. In fact, it could take years to go through them all.

On average, employers look at a CV for three minutes and 14 seconds, according to a new report from the New College of the Humanities.

That would mean that it could take more than 14 years for one recruiter to go through all the applications.

However, the local authorities are slightly more optimistic and estimate that it will take about four years.

One senior official told the BBC: “These candidates only have to be interviewed but my estimate is that the entire process will take at least four years to complete even if there are ten boards interviewing 200 candidates a day, for 25 days a month.”

Successful applicants would receive a monthly salary of 16,000 rupees (£156).

The number of applicants reflect the high unemployment figures of Uttar Pradesh at present. Tens of millions of people are out of work in the state.

Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state with a population of 215 million.

This is not the first time that Indian governmental recruitment drives have caused unexpected results. Several people were injured earlier this year when thousands of people turned up to join the Indian army. The recruitment drive turned into a stampede when the desperate job-seekers turned up to apply.