Midsized Indian firms to create 7 mn jobs by 2021
REPORT CARD 1.4 million jobs to be created annually; number likely to go up: PeopleStrong
As job creation attains a top priority in India’s future growth agenda, midsized companies, with 100 to 5,000 employees, will be the largest recruiters, according to a survey.
According to an exclusive survey by HR outsourcing and technology firm PeopleStrong shared with Mint, if the rate of gross domestic product (GDP) growth and subsequent job creation continues to be the same as today, the mid-market will create approximately 7 million new jobs by 2021, which means approximately 1.4 million jobs annually.
India’s GDP was at 6.1% in the fourth quarter, down from 7% in the third quarter of FY 2017.
Companies in the mid-market segment are hiring approximately 3.5 million people annually, out of which 2 .5 million is replacement hiring and 1 million is new job addition, according to data.
“Mid-sized companies are the real strength of our country. Since important policy decisions are being taken by the government, the industry and businesses will certainly see a good time. One will see better employment generation in the coming years,” said Pravat Chaturvedi, former labour secretary, Government of India, adding that it is hard to predict whether these jobs will come up in the formal or informal sector.
In March, Mint reported that India will make up for around 23% of jobs to be lost to automation globally by 2021. Information technology (IT), IT-enabled services (ITeS) and security services, followed by banking, will be the first sectors to be hit by automation.
“Automation never reduced employment. When computers replaced typewriters, efficiency improved. What is required is improved efficiency, improved production and better income generation,” Chaturvedi said.
PeopleStrong predicts transaction-intensive jobs like server monitoring, data collection, customer service (level 1 queries) across industries, physical labour-intensive jobs in manufacturing and agri-businesses vanishing in the next five years.
At the same time, the company forecasts some emerging jobs too.
These include jobs in artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), mobile and cloud computing, analytics, networking. Data scientists and digital enablers will also be in demand in traditional sectors like banking and manufacturing.
“If government initiatives— like Make in India, making startups accountable for job creation, labour law reforms— start kicking in, this number can be much higher,” said PeopleStrong chief executive officer and founder Pankaj Bansal.