The sharp decline in labour migration across the country has emerged as a major concern for industries, says SN Subrahmanyan, Chairman and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro. Speaking at CII’s Mystic South Global Linkages Summit 2025 in Chennai on Tuesday, Subrahmanyan warned that the reluctance of workers to relocate for jobs poses a significant challenge to businesses and the nation’s growth.
“As an organisation, we employ about 2,50,000 staff and 4,00,000 labourers at any given point of time. While attrition among staff does bother me, I am more worried about the availability of labourers today,” Subrahmanyan said.
He elaborated on L&T’s approach to labour mobilisation, which includes a dedicated HR team closely involved in recruitment and deployment. Despite these efforts, challenges remain. “Labour is not willing to move for opportunities… Maybe their local economy is doing well, maybe it is due to the various government schemes & DBTs available to them, but they are not willing to move,” he explained.
The issue isn’t limited to blue-collar workers. Subrahmanyan noted a similar reluctance among white-collar professionals, including engineers. Reflecting on his own career, he remarked, “When I joined L&T as a graduate engineer, my boss said if you are from Chennai, you go to Delhi and work. But today, if I ask a person from Chennai to work out of Delhi, he says bye. It’s a different world of work today, and we have to see how to make HR policies flexible.”
He described this trend as a hurdle not just for L&T but also for the broader industry’s nation-building efforts.
L&T is tackling this issue through skill training institutes and technology adoption. Subrahmanyan highlighted the use of Artificial Intelligence, with around 100 algorithms developed in their infrastructure business to optimise operations.
The company is also exploring futuristic solutions to labour challenges. “3D printed buildings are still costly when seen at a rate per square foot, but if labour is getting difficult, maybe sometime in the future, we have to live with this,” he said, signaling a shift toward innovation as a potential answer to the workforce crunch.