Every year 450,000 workers enter Nepal's labour force out of which 100,000 are skilled. But political instability and protracted transition has led to mass exodus of skilled and semi-skilled workers. Small businesses such as tailoring, floriculture and hair saloons have been affected by shortage of manpower, but the agriculture industry, which makes up 35 per cent of Nepal's GDP and the manufacturing sector suffer from labour shortage during the harvest season. Expensive labour is robbing small farmers of their profit.

More than 1,500 Nepali workers migrate to work every day. Last year alone, 354,000 youth migrated abroad for work. The minimum monthly wage in Nepal is Rs 6,200 with a minimum daily wage of Rs 230. However, youth who show an aversion to physical labour at home are more than willing to undertake dangerous tasks in foreign countries to earn few thousand rupees more. The labour exodus in Nepal is not only about the difference in pay scales, the lack of jobs here is the main reasons why youths are fleeing the country in large numbers. In the past few years, political interference by party-backed labour unions has shut down several industries. Power cuts and high banking interest rates have increased production cost, reducing the ability of industries to pay proper wages or generate jobs.