Andhra Pradesh may be on the threshold of bifurcation, but as a whole, the State holds out significant employment opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled workers.
A study by the National Skill Development Corporation on the requirements of skilled manpower of the State shows that the ten districts proposed to be carved out into the new State, Telangana, would account for about 45 per cent of the total requirement of skilled personnel of the State as a whole.
The largest employing sectors will be construction, hospitality, banking, insurance, real estate and IT/ITES.
The study has estimated that the State as a whole will face an incremental skilled manpower requirement of 41.41 lakh in the next four years and 23.75 lakh between 2017 and 2022.
In contrast, the availability of manpower is estimated to be hardly 2.85 lakh in the next four years. In other words, the State will continue to face a severe shortage of skilled manpower in the next few years.
The proposed Telengana State will account for a requirement of 18. 44 lakh skilled people in the next four years, led by Rangareddy, Hyderabad and Medak, which would require 3.26 lakh, 2.98 lakh and 2.19 lakh skilled manpower. As against this, the region will have a pool of only 1.31 lakh workers by the end of the four years.
“Looking at the current urbanisation and infrastructure development trend, the building and construction is expected to generate about 50 per cent of the incremental demand (of manpower) in the State. The other sector with a high share of the incremental demand is tourism, trade and hospitality, which could account for 20 per cent of the incremental demand,” the study pointed out.
It added that the auto and auto component sector, which was witnessing a slowdown in growth currently, will require over 1.6 lakh trained workforce in various trade in the next eight years. However, the demand for workforce in the agriculture and allied sectors will witness a negative growth.
Against this background, the NSDC has recommended establishment of a state-level skill development plan, with a coordinated approach by the State, industry and training providers.