The change is highlighted in the latest Silicon Beach Skills Report 2026, prepared by Xpheno for the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM). The report covers Mangaluru, Udupi and surrounding areas and points to a growing talent base, stronger local employment opportunities and a gradual reduction in the region’s traditional talent migration towards Bengaluru and other major cities.
The development comes as Mangaluru continues to attract technology companies, global capability centres (GCCs), start-ups and managed workspace operators as part of Karnataka’s broader effort to expand the digital economy beyond Bengaluru.
Experienced tech talent grows in Mangaluru
Mangaluru recorded a 20% increase in its experienced professional talent pool over the previous year, according to the report.
The city now has around 55,000 experienced professionals, while Udupi has about 22,500, with the two cities together accounting for nearly three-fourths of the experienced talent in the wider region. Udupi’s experienced talent pool grew by around 14% during the same period.
Across the broader Mangaluru-Udupi cluster, the accessible white-collar talent pool has grown to about 2.8 lakh professionals, up from approximately 2.4 lakh in September 2025.
The experienced workforce — professionals with at least one year of work experience — has increased by 17% to around 1.05 lakh.
The figures indicate that the region’s employment base is expanding beyond the pool of fresh graduates and increasingly includes professionals with workplace experience.
Fewer professionals looking to leave
One of the notable findings of the report is the decline in the number of professionals actively seeking jobs outside the region.
The number of active outbound jobseekers fell by 20%, from around 36,400 to 29,000 in a year. At the same time, inbound jobseekers increased by 3% to about 24,000.
The region still has a net gap between professionals looking to leave and those seeking opportunities in Mangaluru-Udupi. However, the narrowing gap suggests that more professionals are considering local employment rather than automatically moving to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai or other major employment centres.
The change is significant for a region that has traditionally produced large numbers of engineering and other graduates who subsequently moved elsewhere in search of higher-paying technology jobs.
IT remains a major employment sector
Information technology and IT-enabled services remain among the most important parts of the region’s white-collar economy.
The report puts the number of experienced professionals in IT and IT-enabled services at around 24,500, representing almost one-fourth of the experienced talent pool. The sector recorded 21% growth during the year.
Other important sectors include banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), business consulting, manufacturing, healthcare, energy and related industries.
The diversification is important because Mangaluru-Udupi’s emerging employment ecosystem is not dependent entirely on software companies. The presence of banks, hospitals, manufacturing companies, consulting firms and other businesses provides professionals with employment opportunities across multiple sectors.
Programming and analytics skills expand
The region’s technology talent is also becoming more specialised.
Programming is the largest skill group, with approximately 25,600 professionals, representing 26% growth over the previous year. Business skills account for around 22,300 professionals, while finance and accounting have about 18,100.
The report also identifies sizeable pools of professionals in analytics and database-related skills.
Engineering remains one of the largest job functions, while business development and sales also account for a significant share of the experienced workforce.
The availability of these skills is important as companies increasingly look beyond Bengaluru for technology and business operations.
Mangaluru’s technology ecosystem expands
The workforce trends coincide with broader expansion in Mangaluru’s technology ecosystem.
Recent industry data presented during Mangaluru Technovanza 2026 indicated that the city and surrounding region have more than 300 technology companies, 400 start-ups and a technology workforce exceeding 50,000. More than 60 companies and 13,000 additional jobs have been added over the past three years, according to organisers.
The event brought together technology companies, start-ups, GCCs, investors and academic institutions as Karnataka sought to strengthen its Beyond Bengaluru technology clusters.
The growth is also being supported by the region’s educational institutions, including NITK Surathkal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Mangalore University and other engineering and professional colleges.
GCCs add higher-value technology jobs
Global capability centres are becoming an increasingly visible part of Mangaluru’s technology landscape.
The expansion of GCC activity provides opportunities for companies to establish engineering, cloud, digital transformation and other specialised operations outside Bengaluru.
Recent industry reports have highlighted NTT DATA’s Mangaluru operation, including its Google Cloud Centre of Excellence, as an example of higher-end technology work being carried out from the coastal city.
Managed workspace companies have also expanded their presence, giving technology companies and GCCs the option of establishing operations without immediately developing their own large office campuses.
This infrastructure can make it easier for companies to test the market, begin with smaller teams and expand their workforce as demand grows.
Talent retention remains a challenge
Despite the positive movement in local employment, the report indicates that Mangaluru-Udupi has not completely reversed its talent migration pattern.
Around 29,000 active jobseekers were still looking for opportunities outside the region, compared with approximately 24,000 inbound jobseekers. IT services and consulting accounted for a significant portion of the professionals seeking jobs elsewhere.
The availability of senior professionals is another challenge.
The region has a large young workforce, but companies looking for professionals with 15 or 20 years of experience may still face a smaller talent pool than in Bengaluru.
Employee retention is also an issue in certain technology skill categories. The report indicates relatively high job movement among programming and analytics professionals, suggesting that companies may need to focus not only on recruitment but also on retaining experienced employees.
Women’s participation needs attention
The report also provides insights into gender representation in the region’s workforce.
Women account for around 38% of the experienced talent pool. Their representation is higher among professionals with one to five years of experience but declines among workers with longer professional experience.
The trend highlights another challenge for the region’s growing white-collar economy: retaining women as they progress into senior and more experienced roles.
Improving career progression, senior-level opportunities and workplace support could influence the region’s ability to build a larger and more diverse experienced workforce.
Mangaluru positions itself as ‘Silicon Beach’
The employment figures come as Mangaluru is increasingly being promoted as Karnataka’s ‘Silicon Beach’.
KDEM’s Beyond Bengaluru initiative is seeking to distribute technology-led growth across multiple cities rather than concentrating investment and employment in Bengaluru.
At Mangaluru Technovanza 2026, KDEM highlighted a technology ecosystem of more than 300 companies and 400 start-ups, along with a workforce exceeding 50,000. The region is also seeing expansion in Grade-A office infrastructure and increased interest from GCCs and investors.
For Mangaluru and Udupi, the challenge now is to convert the expanding talent base into sustained local employment and higher-value technology activity.
Coastal cluster moves beyond talent migration
The latest employment data suggests that the Mangaluru-Udupi region is gradually changing from a place that primarily supplies talent to larger cities into a cluster that can retain more professionals locally.
The increase in experienced talent, decline in outbound jobseekers and arrival of technology companies are all part of that shift.
However, the region will need more senior positions, specialised technology roles, stronger infrastructure and opportunities for career progression if it is to retain professionals over the long term.
The presence of established educational institutions gives the cluster a continuing supply of graduates, while the expanding corporate ecosystem provides an avenue for those graduates to build careers without necessarily leaving the coast.
Conclusion
The Mangaluru-Udupi technology cluster is showing signs of stronger local talent retention, with Mangaluru’s experienced professional pool rising 20% and the number of active outbound jobseekers falling 20% in a year. The region now has around 2.8 lakh accessible white-collar professionals, while technology companies, GCCs and start-ups continue to expand.
The figures indicate a gradual change in coastal Karnataka’s employment landscape. While Bengaluru and other major cities remain important destinations for professionals, the growth of local technology jobs is giving more workers an opportunity to build careers in Mangaluru and Udupi.