Demise Of Salaried Employment, India's Middle-Class Moving Towards Entrepreneurship, Says Saurabh Mukherjea

The age of the dependable, lifelong job is fading fast in India, and with it, the foundation of the country's middle-class dream. That's the stark warning from market strategist and founder Saurabh Mukherjea of Marcellus Investment Managers.

In a candid conversation on the podcast Beyond the Paycheck: India's Entrepreneurial Rebirth, Mukherjea said India is entering a new economic phase where the once-prized path of salaried employment is no longer a reliable route to stability or success.

"I think the defining flavour of this decade will be the gradual demise of salaried employment as a worthwhile avenue for educated, determined, hardworking people," he said.

According to Mukherjea, the traditional middle-class blueprint, study hard, land a stable job, and build a life around long-term employment, is becoming obsolete. Automation and AI, he argues, are rapidly replacing mid-level white-collar roles once seen as safe bets.

"Much of what was supposed to be done by white-collar workers is now done by AI. Google says AI already does a third of its coding. The same is coming for Indian IT, media, and finance," he pointed out.

Drawing on personal experience, Mukherjea described how families like his, "Marathi or Bengali, like many of us," were built around steady jobs. His father worked at a public sector undertaking, and his mother was a schoolteacher in Delhi. But those days, he warned, are numbered.

"The job construct that built India's middle class is no longer sustainable," he said.

Still, this shift isn't purely grim. Mukherjea sees a silver lining in the rise of entrepreneurship, enabled by what he calls the "JAM Trinity", Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar, and Mobile connectivity.

He credits this digital infrastructure with opening up economic access at an unprecedented scale, particularly for low-income and non-urban communities. "JAM gives you identity, access to finance, and data. It's a powerful combination," he said. "It's fueling a wave of entrepreneurs who don't need elite degrees or venture capital to succeed."

Saurabh Mukherjea sees entrepreneurship not just as an alternative but as the future for India's educated workforce. With salaried jobs shrinking under the weight of automation and AI, he argues that entrepreneurship offers a more viable and empowering path forward. "If applied with the same intellect and grit we brought to corporate careers, entrepreneurship can be the new engine of prosperity," he said. "What you need is drive, identity, access to finance, and information." He believes this shift will redefine the Indian middle-class mindset, pushing people to think like builders, not just employees.

Referencing Delhi shop-owner Jasmeen Kaur, who went viral with her "just looking like a wow" catchphrase, Mukherjea said she represents a new India, one where women and small-business owners are using digital tools to build brands and businesses from the ground up.

"She didn't have Ivy League backing. She had a personality, a phone, and a platform. That's enough now," he said.

The shift, however, requires a major mindset overhaul, especially in how Indian families define success.

"We're a money-obsessed society. We define success by paychecks. That has to change," Mukherjea said. "Families like yours and mine must stop preparing kids to be job-seekers. The jobs won't be there."

He believes India must move away from an education system that churns out compliant workers and toward one that encourages creativity, risk-taking, and real-world problem-solving.

"This isn't about rejecting discipline or learning. It's about redirecting those qualities into the building, not just clocking in," he said.

The data backs his claims. In 2015, India saw the creation of roughly 60,000 new companies. By 2024, that number had tripled to over 180,000. For Mukherjea, that signals a quiet revolution, a middle class no longer tied to the salary ladder but building new rungs of its own.

"We're seeing the end of one era," he said. "And the beginning of another."