Jobs aplenty in sunrise areas

An ASSOCHAM study says certain sectors such as retail and IT-Enabled Services will lead the employment boom in India, reports Abdul Latheef Naha

It is boom time in India. The country’s economy is poised to touch double digit growth after achieving the 9.2 per cent mark in the current fiscal. The credit for engineering this robust growth goes chiefly to manufacturing and services sectors. The brisk pace of the country’s economic growth is set to throw open innumerable job opportunities for the youth. But little is heard about the new career alternatives from the campuses of our 200-odd universities, incl uding over 100 general universities, a dozen science and technology universities, 30-plus agricultural universities, five women universities, 11 language universities, and 11 medical universities.

New thrust

A recent study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has found that sectors such as retail, aviation, hospitality, entertainment and brokerages will get paramount thrust in the next few years. A vast array of opportunities will be generated in these so-called sunrise industries. The study on ‘job opportunities in emerging sectors’, brand-named the ASSOCHAM Business Barometer (ABB), has revealed that a wide information gap exists for the students aspiring for rewarding careers. Says Venugopal N. Dhoot, president of ASSOCHAM: “Our ABB is aimed at bridging the information gap for students thronging the university campuses. The students, as also their parents, are well advised to seek admissions in those areas where opportunities exist than making a beeline to a selected courses.”

The ABB assures that Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) will continue to hire manpower most aggressively in the years to come. Having hired a workforce of nearly 1.63 million by March this year, IT-ITeS has proved that it has been the biggest employment sector in recent times. The IT-ITeS industry is projected to require 50,00,000 technology professionals in three years.

K.R. Srivathsan, Director of the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITMK), Thiruvananthapuram, says that most emerging sectors need people with capacity to work in unique environment. “Our management schools need to re-orient themselves towards meeting that requirement,” he says. He says logistics management in all sectors should be taught in a more sensitive manner. It should get priority in the changing scenario, Dr. Srivathsan says.

Skill levels

Apart from the highly skilled engineering jobs, Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs), Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPOs) and more recently Legal Process Outsourcing (LPOs) have been offering a variety of jobs requiring different levels of skills. The $9.5-billion BPO industry may employ close to 23,00,000 people by 2010, the ABB study says. Following the BPO success in India, the global companies have begun to increase their presence in the knowledge processing. KPO industry is currently worth three billion dollars and is projected to scale up to $12 billion in three years.

After BPO, the KPO industry is emerging as a lucrative job destination for the youth. KPOs, which require high-end skills and intellectual attributes, will throw job opportunities in the higher pay-scale category. According to ASSOCHAM, the players in the KPO sector are looking to hire professionals for financial analysis, equity research, treasury operation, credit decision processes and accruals services among others. The segment is set to create 2,50,000 jobs by 2010, hiring workforce from a range of backgrounds from science, engineering, law, accounting, pharmaceuticals to technological streams.

Although at a nascent stage, LPO is projected to grow fast owing to a significant cost advantage in India. ASSOCHAM says that LPOs will generate about 79,000 jobs by 2015. At present the processes being outsourced to India include patent application drafting, legal research, pre-litigation documentation, advising clients, analyzing drafted documents, writing software licensing agreements and drafting distribution agreements.

According to Sanjay Kamlani, co-CEO of Pangea3, a global leader in LPO, the entire global legal market is now open to Indian law professionals.

The retail sector

ASSOCHAM study underlines that high consumer spending has spawned a huge interest in the largely unorganised retail sector.

It is estimated that the retail sector will add $14 billion in terms of market size by 2010 to cross $21.5 billion. Considering the size and the purchasing power of the Indian consumer, it is only a matter of time before our domestic retail industry catches up with its Western counterparts. India is in the midst of a retail boom. Some business schools, according to P. Mohan, head of the Department of Commerce and Management Studies, Calicut University, have begun to respond to the retail boom. “Retail management has been added to the MBA curriculum,” Dr. Mohan says.

The ABB study says that retail is expected to create the maximum number of job opportunities among the upcoming fields after IT-ITeS. The forecasts suggest that the sector may produce 20,00,000 jobs by 2010 directly through retail operations.

Aviation, other sectors

The aviation sector in India is growing at a whopping 25 per cent per annum, creating abounding job opportunities.

Openings would be generated in the areas of flight dispatchers, cabin crew, airline managers, airport managers and ground handling personnel as well. The industry would create 2,00,000 jobs by 2017.

With the business travel increasing at a rapid pace and Commonwealth Games round the corner, hoteliers are in the expansion mode. The sector would need a fresh workforce of at least 94,000 by 2010-11. HR managers are looking to hire graduates from home science, commerce, physics and engineering for the sector. Bollywood-driven music industry including expanding reach of FM is leading to expansion of the entertainment sector in a big way. Besides, the content creating firms for the television have grown manifold. The animation industry has grown by over 30 per cent on year-on-year basis in the last three years and looks promising in the time to come as well. The segment alone would need close to 3,00,000 professionals by 2009, says the ASSOCHAM study. Growing at more than 10 per cent for the past three years, Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services have outpaced overall GDP growth. With investment and banking companies growing at a rapid pace there would be many vacancies in retail banking, asset management and financial management.