To meet the rise in demand for connectivity as digitalisation and Work From Home (WFH) gain ground, India’s telecom infrastructure and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are expected to recruit nearly 3,500-5,000 personnel in calendar year 2021. This will increase the total employee base in telecom infrastructure and OEM space to about 85,200.

This would be a slight increase from 2020, when infrastructure and OEM firms recruited about 4,200 direct and indirect jobs. This year, telecom operators are expected to add another 3,000 employees to their total workforce, compared with a relatively flat 2020, according to human resource company TeamLease Services.

“The addition of headcount this year is directly linked to the industry’s growth and the rising demand for connectivity. An increase in technology adoption due to WFH, corporates warming up technologies such as Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence, and manufacturing and other sectors improving digitalisation among others are the major reasons,” Gautam Vohra, vice president and business head, Telecom & Engineering Staffing at TeamLease Digital (a subsidiary of TeamLease Services) said.

“Telecom operators strengthening their 4G footprint, readying infrastructure for 5G roll out and setting up more call centres are the other reasons,” Vohra told BusinessLine.

The companies – telecom infrastructure, OEM and operators – would be generally recruiting electronics, electric and telecommunication engineers. For the new recruits, the salaries are also expected to be higher by 8-9 per cent for entry-level jobs, while it would be about 5 per cent or so for mid- and high-level, compared with previous years.

“The world survived Covid days only due to IT and telecom. The actual and pressing demand for Internet has increased manifold and the need for new telecom technologies and investments are also increasing. The pressure to keep network up and running has also reached highest levels, and all these factors are contributing to pepped up demand and need for additional manpower,” Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) Chairman Ravi Sharma said.

The telecom infrastructure and OEM sectors employed a total of 76,000 personnel (direct and indirect) in 2019. While there was rise in demand for telecom services in 2020, the headcount addition remained muted due to the lockdown and uncertainty over the spread and containment of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2022, telecom and allied sectors are expected to add about 20,000 jobs as the sector grows.

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