24/7 Customer Pvt. Ltd., a call-center company in India, is desperate to find competent graduates who can answer questions by email or phone. On the hunt to hire 3,000 people this year, it finds that it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire any one at all. In fact, out of every batch of 100 candidates they interview, only a small handful make the cut.

In a country of 1.2 billion people and thousands of graduates, one would think that there would be a better grasp of educational basics such as reading comprehension. President Barack Obama pointed out that with our abilities in math, it is no wonder the U.S. is facing competition.

India is one of the reasons that offshoring has become a household word, and yet it seems as though it is not long in being that way. Slowly the search for competent graduates is beginning to move into other places such as the Philipines, Africa and China.

The founder of the the company, S. Nagarajan says, “With India’s population size, it should be so much easier to find employees. Instead, we’re scouring every nook and cranny.”

Vijay Thadani, chief executive of NIIT Ltd. India says “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Be that as it may, if graduates do not sit up and take notice of these shortcomings, business will soon be lost to more competent graduates, both within the country, and without.