Not jobs, wages and skills are the issue

Two sets of data are hogging the headlines on unemployment. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) data says India has the lowest unemployment rate in the world at 3.5 per cent against 4.7 per cent in China and 4.2 per cent in Asia Pacific. However, the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)-2017-18 says that unemployment rate touched 6.1 per cent at the end of FY 18, which is a 45-year high. Which one of the two figures are we to believe?

The fact is in the current scenario the problem is not one of jobs but the mismatch of skills which is keeping the workforce unemployed and the wages which is an issue in the country, say experts.

“In the range of ₹15,000- ₹25,000 there are lot of jobs available, however the problem is with the expectation of workforce for a higher wage and lack of required skills needed for the respective jobs,” said Amit Vadhera, Head Staffing – BFSI and government, TeamLease Services Ltd. If there are job seekers then there are job providers too, however, the problem is that there is a skill gap between what is needed and what is required, he added.

As per National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) Sector Specific reports on Human Resource and Skill Requirements, there would be an incremental requirement of 103.4 million people in the 24 high growth sectors requiring fresh skilling.

According to the TeamLease report on the Employment Outlook India for the period April-September 2019, 17 per cent of all net new jobs are likely to be fresher hiring (across the 19 sectors and Tier-1 cities — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune). The retail sector leads the race in job creation in Delhi (8,250), Chennai (5,550), Bengaluru (4,960) while educational services come second in estimated job creation.

The job scenario in the blue collar workforce is seeing a growth with lot of opportunities in segments like logistics and food delivery. On the other hand, the situation is stagnant in the white collar workforce, said an industry expert. “The job scenario seems positive in blue-collar workforce and in the days to come there will be an increase of 10-12 per cent in the job opportunities in this segment,” said Pravin Agarwala, Co-founder CEO, BetterPlace.

In the white collar segment, due to automation, a lot of traditional jobs are being replaced by the digital ones, he added. According to a report by BetterPlace, a digital trust platform for Indian Blue Collar, around 96 per cent of the workforce in the blue collar job roles is for males. Also, around 64 per cent of the workforce comes from the age-group of 24-38 years.

It also added that most verticals in the workforce see high attrition which ranges anywhere from 40 per cent to 300 per cent. More than half of workforce is of 23 years of age and below, which changes job within 90 days. It also mentioned that the workers change jobs or go back to their home towns.

According to the 5th Annual Employment Unemployment Surveys (EUS) report (2015-16), Unemployment Rate (per 1000 persons) for persons of age group “15-17 years“,“18-29 years” and “30 years and above” are 198 persons, 132 persons and 16 persons respectively. The Report for 2016-17 (6th report) is under finalisation.

The government has informed Parliament that an Inter-Ministerial Committee has been constituted to draft the National Employment Policy and consultations were held with various stakeholders like Ministries, State governments, trade unions, industry associations, ILO etc. for inputs.