For generations, many families in coastal Karnataka have followed a strict path. A child does well in school, goes to a good college in Mangaluru or Manipal, gets a first job and then moves to Bengaluru. Parents get used to video calls and festival visits. However, now the coast becomes a place that produces talent for other cities. This phenomenon is slowly changing.

Mangaluru today has offices of global IT companies, banks, hospitals, manufacturers and a growing pool of young professionals. Many are choosing to stay instead of moving to Bengaluru.

The state government is also trying to support this change through its Beyond Bengaluru Mission. The aim is to expand the digital economy to cities that already have colleges and skilled people but need more jobs.

Silicon Beach Skills, a talent report prepared by Xpheno for the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) and released in September 2026, looks at how the region is changing. The report covers Udupi, Mangaluru and nearby areas and compares the talent pool with the previous year. The numbers show that the region is growing, but also has some clear gaps.

Here are the 10 key takeaways.

1. The talent pool is growing

    The region now has 280,000 accessible white-collar professionals, up from 240,000 in September 2025. The experienced talent pool, which includes people with at least one year of work experience, has grown 17% to 105,000. This gives companies a larger pool of professionals to hire from.

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    2. Mangaluru and Udupi account for most of the talent

      Mangaluru has 55,000 experienced professionals, up 20% in a year. Udupi has 22,500, up 14%. The two cities account for about 74% of the region’s experienced talent. Bhadravathi has 4,400 experienced professionals, while Chikkamagaluru has 3,900. The numbers show that most of the region’s experienced talent is still concentrated in a few cities.

      3. The talent pool extends beyond the coast

        The report divides the region into different zones. Zone 2, which includes Chikmagalur, Bhatkal and Sakleshpur, has 13,500 experienced professionals. Zone 1 has 7,500 and Zone 3 has 6,500.

        The report also includes a Kerala extension covering Kannur, Kasargode and nearby towns. This adds 38,000 professionals, including 9,500 experienced workers. For companies looking to hire, the available talent pool is therefore much larger than the numbers within Mangaluru and Udupi alone.

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        4. IT leads, but other sectors are growing too

          IT and IT-enabled services have 24,500 experienced professionals, almost a quarter of the experienced talent pool. The sector grew 21% in a year. BFSI and business consulting follow with 14,400 professionals.

          Manufacturing has 9,200, hospitals and healthcare have 6,700, while energy, oil and gas has 2,500. The numbers show that the region’s white-collar economy is spread across several sectors rather than being dependent only on IT

          5. Programming is the biggest skill group

            Programming is the largest skill group, with 25,600 professionals, up 26%. Business skills account for 22,300 professionals, while finance and accounting have 18,100. Both groups grew 23%.

            Analytics has 14,300 professionals and database skills have 14,000. Looking at job functions, engineering has 16,500 professionals, while business development and sales has 16,400.

            6. The workforce is young, but there is also senior talent

              Among experienced professionals, 46% have between one and five years of work experience. Another 25% have between five and 10 years of experience.

              At the senior end, 14% have 15 years or more of experience. The technology workforce is particularly young. In programming, 55% of professionals have between one and five years of experience. In analytics, the figure is 60%.

              This gives companies access to a large early-career workforce, while the region also has a smaller pool of experienced professionals.

              7. Women make up 38% of the talent pool

                Women account for 38% of the experienced talent pool. Their share is higher among early-career professionals. Women make up 44% of professionals with one to five years of experience. This falls to 22% among those with 20 years or more of experience.

                Healthcare services has an even split between men and women, while engineering is 70% male. The numbers point to a drop in women’s representation as experience increases.

                8. Fewer people are looking to leave

                  The number of active outbound jobseekers fell 20% in a year, from 36,400 to 29,000. At the same time, inbound jobseekers rose 3% to 24,000.

                  This means the gap between people looking to leave and people looking to move into the region has narrowed. The region still has a net outflow of about 5,000 active jobseekers. IT services and consulting account for 32% of those looking to leave. The pull of larger cities remains, but the gap is smaller than it was a year ago.

                  9. Global companies and local colleges support the talent base

                    The report lists 20 major employer brands in the region, including Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, Wipro, Capgemini, Amazon, Accenture, EY, HDFC Bank and Karnataka Bank.

                    The region also has a strong education base, with institutions such as NITK Surathkal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, NMAM Institute of Technology and Mangalore University.

                    Among experienced professionals, 61,950 have a bachelor’s degree and 25,200 have a master’s degree. Computer science is the largest educational stream, accounting for 29% of the talent pool.

                    10. Retaining employees remains a challenge

                      Job changes remain high in some of the region’s key skill areas. Xpheno’s data shows that 16% of programmers and 17% of analytics professionals changed jobs at least once during the year.The median tenure for both groups is about 1.1 years.

                      Finance is relatively more stable, with 13% churn and a median tenure of 1.3 years. The data shows that while companies have access to a growing talent pool, retaining employees could remain a challenge.

                      The data points to a growing white-collar economy outside Bengaluru. Mangaluru and Udupi have a larger talent pool than a year ago. More professionals are choosing to stay, however the number of people actively looking to leave has fallen. The region also has established companies, colleges and a mix of technology, finance, healthcare and manufacturing jobs.

                      Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, said the numbers show that Karnataka’s white-collar economy is expanding beyond Bengaluru, with Silicon Beach among the clusters driving this change.

                      The region still has some gaps to address. It needs more senior roles, longer employee tenures and better retention of women as they move into more experienced roles.

                      If these areas improve, coastal Karnataka could become a stronger white-collar employment centre in its own right, rather than remaining mainly a source of talent for Bengaluru and other cities.