PUBLISHED ON MARCH 21, 2022 IN RESEARCH

Analytics India Attrition

Study 2022 – Complete
Report
The attrition rate for data science/analytics
professionals for the year 2021 stood at 28.1%,
up from 16.0% in 2020.

BY RAHUL BHORAYAL

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The Data Science India Attrition Report

is an annual study that delves into the
attrition trends to provide a
comprehensive view of the changing
landscape of attrition in India’s data
science industry. The report looks at
the attrition rates across several
categories, including geographies,
company sizes, years of experience,
industries, and cities.

This study can be benefitted recruiters,

entrepreneurs, industry policymakers,
companies, data science experts to get
the overall view about the attrition
rate of the data science industry in
India.

You can access reports from previous

years at the link below:

2021

The attrition rate in the Data Science

market stands at 28.1% in 2021, a 12.1pp
increase compared to 2020. The
massive increase in the attrition rate is
largely due to higher demand for data
science professionals across industries.

The increasing adoption of digitisation

among various traditional firms, and
the explosion of tech startups in India,
accelerated the demand for
professionals with digital skills.
Especially professionals with expertise
in data science are in very high
demand across industries. They help
companies leverage available data to
gain customer insights, predict future
trends, streamline business processes,
and others.

In addition, due to their criticality to

businesses, professionals in this
domain are experiencing massive
opportunities to switch their jobs for
higher salaries, flexible work
arrangements, ESOPs, and other
benefits as companies are in the hunt
to recruit the best talent in the market.
As a result, the attrition rate in the
data science market has skyrocketed.

Key Highlights
The attrition rate for data
science/analytics professionals
for the year 2021 stood at 28.1%,
up from 16.0% in 2020.
The attrition rate of large
companies with more than 10,000
employees is 30.8% and of
companies with less than 50
employees is at 26.7%.
Bangalore has the highest
attrition rate among metropolitan
cities, at 29.7%, followed by
Mumbai (28.8%), Kolkata
(28.1%), and Delhi/NCR (27.8%).
BFSI has the highest attrition at
34.2%, whereas the lowest is for
Telecom at 20.5%.
High growth firms like Startups
and Boutiques have the highest
attrition rates of 43.7% and 42.1%,
respectively.
The attrition rate among key data
science roles is the highest for
AI/ML Engineers at 34.3%.
More than one in three (34.5%)
data science professionals with
less than two years of experience
switched jobs in 2021 — this
number reduces to 12.9% for
professionals with more than 10
years of experience.
Entry-level professionals
switched jobs at a rate of 32.3%
compared to leadership roles who
have an attrition rate of 15.0%.

Attrition by Company
Size

37.5%
The attrition rate is the highest for
companies with a size of 5001-10000 at
37.5%

2
The attrition rate for employees in the
5001-10000 and 10000+ company size
more than doubled in the last year

1/2
The attrition rate was around 50% for
employees with less than two years of
experience across all company sizes

Overall, the attrition rate of data

science professionals was the highest
for companies sized 5001-10000 at
37.5%. It was also high for companies
with more than 10,000 employees at
30.8%. This number is around 26.7%
for companies with less than 50
employees and 28.6% for 51-200. The
lowest attrition rate at 25.0% is for
mid-sized companies with 201-500
employees.

Over the years, the

attrition rate for mid-
sized companies is seen
to be low compared to
small enterprises or
bigger firms. Smaller
companies have lower
stability while bigger
companies present data
science professionals
with lesser opportunities
to scale in their careers.

Companies across all sizes see a higher

attrition rate in entry-level to mid-
level roles than individuals in
management to leadership roles. Even
companies sized 201-500 had the
second-highest attrition rate (51.1%)
for employees with less than two years
of experience.

The highest Y-o-Y rise (20.5 pp) in

attrition rate from 2020 to 2021 was
seen in companies with 5001-10000
employees. Conversely, the increase
was lowest (2.7pp) for the companies
with less than 50 employees.

The attrition rate for companies with

501-100 and 1001-5000 employees
increased by relatively low margins of
12.6pp and 14.3pp, respectively.

Attrition by Cities

29.7%
Bangalore has the highest attrition rate
among all metropolitan cities at 29.7%

2
The attrition rate in Bangalore and
Chennai almost doubled (1.9 times) in
2021 on a Y-o-Y basis

1/4
More than one in four of professionals
who switched jobs in India moved to
companies in Bangalore

Considering that it is called the Silicon

Valley of India, Bangalore provides the
highest number of job opportunities
across sectors for techies to switch
their jobs for better career growth. As a
result, it has the highest attrition rate
at 29.7%. Furthermore, around 27.7%
of total data science professionals who
switched jobs in 2021 in India moved to
companies based in Bangalore.
Mumbai stood in second place with an
attrition rate of 28.8%.

Bangalore and Mumbai also had the

highest annual increase in their
attrition rates of approximately 13.9pp
and 13.0pp.

On the other hand, Hyderabad had the

lowest attrition rate at 22.7% and also
saw the lowest Y-oY growth of just
8.7pp.

Sectors with high

attrition rate are
predominantly based in
Mumbai. These are also
sectors seeing a high
adoption of data-driven
technologies leading to
more job opportunities
in the field.

The attrition rate by years of

experience is highest for the
professionals with less than two years
of experience across all the cities,
ranging from 31.7% for Hyderabad to
43.7% for Bangalore. On the other
hand, the attrition rate is lowest for
professionals with more than 10 years
of experience, ranging from 13.7% for
Chennai to 19.6% for Hyderabad.

Cities like Kolkata and

Pune see a high attrition
rate among younger
professionals as they
seek opportunities in
bigger cities like
Bangalore, Delhi, and
Mumbai.

Attrition by Industries

34.2%
BFSI had the highest attrition rate at
34.2% in 2021

21.2pp
BFSI had the highest increase in
attrition of 21.2pp in 2021 compared to
the previous year

1.7
The attrition for BFSI (34.2%) is
roughly 1.7 times higher than Telecom
industry (20.5%) that has the lowest
attrition

The highest attrition rate is witnessed

by BFSI at 34.2%, followed by Pharma
& Healthcare at 32.8%. The key
reasons for higher attrition across
these industries can be attributed to
the high competition of data science
talent with the respective domain
knowledge.

To continuously enhance the quality of

their apps and customer experience,
Intenet/eCommerce firms are chasing
talent from within the industry by
offering significantly higher packages
and other perks. As a result, the
attrition rate in the industry is the
third-highest at 31.9%, an increase of
14.4pp on a Y–o-Y basis.

The telecom sector had the lowest

attrition rate at 20.5%. It also had the
second-lowest annual increase of just
11.4pp in its attrition rate.

While increasing
digitisation has led to
many opportunities for
data scientists across
sectors, traditional
industries like Telecom,
Oil & Industrial, or
Education still tend to
have lower attrition
rates.

Across most industries, professionals

with less than two years of experience
had the highest attrition rate, ranging
from 28.3% for Telecom to 42.1% for
BFSI. On the other hand, professionals
with more than ten years of experience
have the lowest attrition rate, ranging
from 8.0% for Oil & Industrial to 18.9%
for Pharma & Healthcare.

The attrition rate of professionals with

3-5 years of experience in Telecom and
Marketing & Advertising (31.4% and
38.5%) is lower than the attrition rate
of professionals with less than or equal
to two years of experience (28.3% and
29.5%).

Attrition by Company
Type

43.7%
Across company types, the attrition
rate is highest in Startups at 43.7%

1.7
The attrition rate in Startups is 1.7
times higher than the rate in Domestic
Firms

1/2
Almost one in two (47.7%) of managers
in Boutique analytics firms switched
jobs in the last year

Despite better pay scales and faster

career advancement opportunities, the
attrition rate among Startups and
Boutiques firms in India is the highest.
The key reasons for such a high
attrition rate include high uncertainty,
overburdening employees with work,
reluctance in power decentralisation,
and culture. As a result, the attrition
rate in these firms stands at 43.7% and
42.1%, respectively.

High growth firms like

startups and boutique AI
firms tend to have high
attrition rates as data
scientists jump ships fast
within these firms
seeking better
opportunities.

This is followed by Consulting firms

(34.5%) and Captives (30.5%). These
firms offer competitive salaries, and
professionals are often seen jumping
ships within these firms for a better
paycheck.

The no-growth path, neck to neck

competition, and bad work culture are
a couple of main reasons for the
attrition rate in IT Service firms.
However, comparatively lower, the
attrition rate for these firms stands at
27.6%.

Domestic firms witness a lower

attrition rate due to comparatively
slower adoption of emerging
technologies. Also, the culture in these
firms influences the low attrition rates
to an extent. Hence, the rate of
attrition is around 25.0% within
domestic firms.

Attrition by Years of
Experience & Seniority

1st
The attrition rate is the highest across
most segments (cities, industries,
firms, company size and seniority) for
professionals with less than two years
of experience

2.3
The attrition rate for professionals with
6-10 years of experience more than
doubled (2.3 times) on a Y-o-Y basis

1/8
More than one in eight (12.9%)
professionals with over 10 years of
experience switched their jobs

Professionals with less than two years

of experience have the highest
attrition rate at 34.5%—5.7pp higher
than the previous year.

On the other hand, the lowest attrition

rate is for professionals with more
than ten years of experience—at
12.9%, this is a Y-o-Y increase of
4.9pp.

Hence, the gap between the attrition

rates of those with more than ten years
of experience and those with less than
two years of experience grew further to
21.6pp in 2021, up from 20.8pp in
2020.

A significant increase in
attrition across
experience brackets of 3