Three in four Indian job ads say how many years they want. In America it is half.
Short answer: Of Indian postings whose text we can read, 75% state a number of years. In the United States the figure is 51%. An Indian candidate usually knows where the bar sits before applying. An American one often does not.
The counts
| Described roles read | State a number of years | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | 57,549 | 43,250 | 75% |
| United States | 112,514 | 57,647 | 51% |
Same index, same week, same method. The gap is 24 points.
Why it is probably not an accident
American employment lawyers have spent two decades warning clients that a hard years-of-experience line invites an age discrimination claim. "Five years required" is easy to point at in a complaint. "Demonstrated expertise" is not. Over time that advice has shaped how an American job advert reads.
India has no equivalent pressure, and the hiring culture runs the other way. Years map to bands, bands map to pay, and candidates are used to seeing the number. Indian services firms hire in volume and the number does the screening work before a recruiter ever opens a CV.
We cannot prove motive from a corpus of job ads. We can only report that one market writes the number down far more often than the other, and the difference is large enough that it is not noise.
What it costs the candidate
Vagueness is not kindness. An American posting that says "significant experience" still has a number behind it, sitting in the recruiter's screening notes where the applicant cannot see it. The applicant spends an hour on an application that was never going to clear a filter they were not shown.
The Indian pattern has the opposite failure. A number that is written down tends to be enforced mechanically, even when the candidate is obviously able to do the work. A sharp three-year engineer reads "5+ years" and closes the tab, and no human ever sees the application.
Neither is better. They fail differently.
What we do with it
Where a posting states a number, we read it and attach it to the role, so you can filter on the employer's own words rather than on a title. Where a posting states nothing, we say nothing. We do not guess a seniority band from the job title and present it as a requirement, because that would be our invention dressed up as the employer's.
That means a search for "roles wanting three years" will miss the 49% of American postings that stay quiet. There is no honest way around it. The alternative is to invent a number, and an invented number in a job search is worse than a gap.
What this does not tell you
A stated minimum is a filter, not a law. Employers interview below the line often enough that treating it as a wall is a mistake.
We also only see postings whose text we can read. Where a board publishes a listing without the advert body, the role sits outside this count entirely. That affects the American figure more than the Indian one, because more American roles sit on boards that keep the text one click further away.
Method
Each posting is read from the employer's own board. We take the lowest number of years stated in the text and ignore the rest of the range. Sentences describing the company rather than the role are filtered where we can detect them.
Counted on 5 October 2026 across live roles open to India or the United States. Each posting was last re-read from its board on or before 29 September 2026.
Common questions
Do Indian job postings state years of experience?
Yes, usually. 75% of Indian postings whose advert text we can read state a number of years, against 51% of American ones.
Why do American job ads avoid saying how many years they want?
The common explanation is legal caution: a fixed years requirement is easier to challenge as age discrimination than a vague phrase. We can measure the pattern but not the motive, so treat that as the usual account rather than a finding.
Can I apply if I have fewer years than the advert asks for?
Frequently, yes. The stated minimum is a screening filter and employers interview outside it when the rest of the application fits. Use the number to decide what to apply for first, not what to rule out.