Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on South Asian graduates' employment experiences in Australia. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative exploratory research approach was adopted with in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 South Asian graduates who studied postgraduate courses in Australia, and these were used for data collection and analysed thematically. Findings: The study results highlighted significant positive and negative impacts on employment experienced by this cohort. Positive impact includes gaining employment related to their studies, thus having stability in their employment; negative impact includes difficulties in gaining related-study employment, limited face-to-face networking opportunities and non-renewal of employment-related contracts. Originality/value: While scholarly articles have focused on understanding the numerous employability-related challenges faced by international students and graduates from South Asian countries, this is the first paper that sets out to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted South Asian graduates' employment experiences in Australia.