After benefits of cheap oil, India counts cost of reduced Gulf remittances

Laundry is seen hung out to dry outside an accommodation for migrant workers in Labor City, Qatar, January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon/File Photo

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Having quit his low-paid job with a contractor in Qatar, electrician Kurian Joseph scrabbles for work each day in his hometown in Kerala, a southwestern state that has one of India's highest unemployment rates.

He's a casualty of the global oil price collapse. Stories like Joseph's explain why remittances from Indians working abroad slumped 27 percent in the fiscal year through March to $48 billion (£32.8 billion) - the lowest since the 2008 global financial crisis.