2017 will soon be here in a few more days’ time; a brand new year with brand new dreams, hopes, opportunities, openings and all that one looks for in a new year. Since opening up its economy to the world in 1991, India’s journey on the path to economic growth has been an eventual one, transforming it to one of the world’s fastest growing economies. With a large and growing population that is its best asset, India can look to quadruple its GDP and catapult itself into the league of developed economies over the next few decades. But then that is possible only and only if its billion plus population can be transformed into a productive workforce and gainfully employed.
Whether that exactly happens would be only known in the next few years. But meanwhile the bigger question is – which sectors one needs to look for jobs in the year 2017?
According to one survey report, the job outlook for the first half of 2017 would be a mixed bag with healthcare sector hiring in big numbers and telecom, infrastructure and eCommerce sectors likely to witness periods of robust hiring. On the downslide, the FMCG and automobile sector would see lesser hiring while the much favoured IT sector likely to see a marginal rise in hiring.
Hot Sectors to Look for Jobs:
If you’re one of those looking for a new job in 2017, then you need to focus on the following sectors that are primed for healthy growth and employment opportunities in 2017.
ECommerce Sector:
eCommerce is one segment where you can expect to find a diversified array of employment opportunities. India is at the cusp of a digital revolution with more and more people in rural as well as urban areas shunning the old ways in their lifestyle and quickly embracing the fruits of digital revolution that is sweeping across India.
It’s not only the big names of Indian eCommerce like Amazon, Flipkart, etc, but also a growing number of small and medium businesses that are growing at a brisk pace by selling online. And with the Government’s initiative ‘Start-Up India’, more businesses can look to better days ahead and diversify their operations in the burgeoning eCommerce sector.
The other key factors that will fuel the growth of the Indian eCommerce industry will be:
• Huge rise in the number of internet users.
• Increased trust towards small and medium eCommerce businesses.
• Growing acceptability of buying things online.
• Favorable demographics of young population inclined to all things online.
• Government support in the form of initiatives like ‘Start-Up India’ & ‘Digital India’.
While there will be better job opportunities for eCommerce engineers in small, medium and large eCommerce businesses, the demand for skilled professionals would also be felt in product and technology, frontline and analytics areas.
Market reports reveal that the e-commerce sector in India is likely to reach $30 billion by the mid of 2017 with rapid growth aided by rising internet penetration, more use of Smartphone’s and the availability of varied payment options. As the e-commerce industry grows and becomes more mature, there would be more demand for skilled talent and around 2 lakhs or more online and offline jobs could be created in India. Furthermore, experts also visualize mid-size and small players in the sector having better growth and hiring plans compared with bigger players.
Health Care Sector:
With more and more Indians becoming more health conscious, it’s inevitable that the number of old people would grow further in coming years. When that happens, healthcare services will truly have come of age in India.
Currently, the healthcare delivery segment which includes hospitals, diagnostic centres and nursing homes and pharmaceuticals, constitutes 65% of the overall market. It is expected to grow further at a vibrant pace owing to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing expenditure by public as well as private players. The total industry size is expected to touch US$ 160 billion by 2017 and US$ 280 billion by 2020. Further according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, the overall Indian healthcare industry with increased digital adoption which is worth around US$ 100 billion is expected to grow to US$ 280 billion by 2020, which means a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9%.
The healthcare information technology (IT) market, which is valued by US$ 1 billion currently, is expected to grow 1.5 times by 2020. Then there is the Indian medical tourism industry which is currently pegged at US$ 3 billion per annum with tourist arrivals estimated at 2, 30,000. Studies reveal that the industry will likely reach US$ 6 billion by 2018 end, with the number of people coming to India for medical treatment set to double over the next four years. More number of hospitals will get accredited and receive recognition as true world-class healthcare centres that meets international standards.
As per a report titled, “India’s New Opportunities - 2020’ by the All India Management Association, Boston Consulting Group and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Indian healthcare industry, in many ways on a par with those in the advanced world, possess several advantages over other developing countries, which will help in the generation of around 40 million new jobs by 2020.
There will be big demand for job areas like Occupational Therapist Assistants, Physical Therapists, Pharmacy Technicians, Medical Assistants, Computer Application Software Engineers, Skin care specialists, Biochemists and biophysicists, Personal and Home care aides, home-health aides, nurses, etc.
IT Sector:
For long India’s sunshine sector, the IT industry contributed considerably to transforming India’s image from a mystical nation to a global player that can provide world-class technology solutions. According to industry experts and NASSCOM, the Indian IT workforce will touch nearly 30 million by 2020 which will make it the highest sector employer. This coupled with continual steady increase in pay will further enhance its aura and position it as an industry that will remain much-sought after, in 2017 and beyond, by job-seekers.
Adding to the IT industry’s continued growing profile are the following forecasts:
• IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation): The Indian IT industry will continue to grow comfortably and touch $225 billion by 2020.
• Recruitment and staffing company Randstad India: The Indian IT/ITeS sector is poised to grow at a cumulative growth rate of 9%.
• IT industry body Nasscom: IT sector is expected to add $20 billion in the FY 2016 to the previous year’s revenue of $146 billion.
With the tech boom expected to continue in India as in other parts of the world in the coming years, companies will look to beef up their operations, especially in areas like cloud computing, big data, algorithm design and data sciences, etc, while increasing the number of IT jobs, fuelling the demand for skilled IT professionals. Teamlease Employment Outlook report has predicted a marginal increase in hiring from October 2016 to March 2017 compared with the previous six months
Randstad India has likewise predicted that at least 75% of the Indian IT / ITeS companies would increase their headcount in the next six months. Professionals with skills in any one or more of the following skills would be in demand for 2017:
• Cloud and Distributed Computing.
• User Interface design / Web architecture and development framework.
• Storage system and Management.
• Statistical Analysis and Data mining professionals.
• Algorithm design.
• Cyber security - Networking and Information security.
• PR and Communications.
• Economics remains.
• Public policy and international relations.
Social Media Marketing is also likely to see robust hiring of professionals with ample skills in social media marketing and the ability to convert potential customers into full-time customers.
Telecom Sector:
India is currently the world’s second-largest telecommunications market and has registered strong growth in the past decade and half. A report prepared by GSM Association (GSMA) in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has projected that the Indian mobile economy will continue to grow rapidly and contribute substantially to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Some key trends that are expected to play a crucial role in accelerating the continued growth of the telecom industry include:
• Government of India’s plans to roll out free high-speed Wi-Fi in 2,500 cities and towns across the country over the next three years. The program entails an investment of up to Rs 7,000 crore (US$ 1.06 billion) and will be implemented by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
• Revenues of the total Mobile services, driven by strong adoption of data consumption on mobile devices, is expected to touch US$ 37 billion in 2017, with a CAGR of 5.2 per cent between 2014 and 2017, as per research firm IDC.
• Broadband services user-base in India is expected to scale up to 250 million connections by 2017, as per GSMA.
• International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts India to overtake the US as the second-largest Smartphone market globally by 2017 and maintain a high growth rate over the next few years, as people switch to Smartphone’s and gradually upgrade to 4G.
• Leading research firm Market Research Store predicts that the Indian telecommunication services market will likely grow by 10.3 per cent year-on-year to reach US$ 103.9 billion by 2020.
Currently, India already has nearly 850 million mobile phone subscribers; with a 15% smart phone penetration. By the year 2019, India is expected to have over 180 million Smartphone’s, contributing around 13.5 per cent to the global Smartphone market, based on rising affordability and better availability of data services among other factors. All of these points to a penetration that is fuelling the growth of enterprise mobility in India, which will lead to significant employment growth.
Randstad India in its report recently has said that the Indian telecom sector is expected to generate four million direct and indirect jobs over the next five years. Companies will continue to stay focused on digital technology and mobile app development which means that hiring will be strong in these areas.
The following job positions would be most in demand in the coming years:
• Network Management Functional Area: Base Station Service Engineer, Core Network Engineer, Field Maintenance Engineer, Transmission Engineer, Optical Fibre Technician, Broadband Installation Engineer, Network Management Engineer, ICT Technician, Network Security Technician.
• Sales & Service Functional Area: Field Sales Executive, Customer Care Executive, Customer Relationship Executive, In-Store Promoter, Territory Sales Manager (Broadband), Territory Sales Manager (Mobile), Mobile Repair Technician, Repair Centre Customer Care Executive, Distributor Sales Representative.
• Applications Development Functional Area: Mobile Applications Developer, Games Developer, Handset Software Developer, Embedded Hardware Developer, Network Software Developer.
• Infrastructure Functional Area: Tower Technician, Broadband Technician & Radio Frequency Engineer.
Infrastructure Sector:
One of the major drivers of the Indian economy during the past decade, Infrastructure sector currently enjoys intense focus from the Central Government. The Government in line with its commitment to ensure time-bound creation of world-class infrastructure in the country, has announced a target of RS 25 Trillion (US$ 376.53 Billion) investment in infrastructure over a period of the next three years which will also include Rs 8 trillion (US$ 120.49 billion) for developing 27 industrial clusters and an additional Rs 5 trillion (US$ 75.30 billion) for road, railway and port connectivity projects.
The intense focus of the Central Government is well-supplemented by significant interest from many international investors and companies who are keen on collaborating with India on infrastructure, high-speed trains, renewable energy and last but not the least, development of smart cities.
Indian port and aviation sector is also poised to witness heightened construction activity in the coming years with the Government’s commitment to build more world-class ports and airports.
Given the huge gap between potential and current infrastructure penetration in India, the prospects and possibilities for not just growth but also employment is enormous. The job areas in demand for 2017 will be:
• Civil Engineering professionals in both design and project management.
• Construction Managers and Project Managers with skills in overseeing projects, commercial and residential.
• Contracts Manager, Estimators, Architects, etc.
Construction professionals with new technical skills including digital and technology-based will be the most in demand.
Manufacturing Sector:
Manufacturing has emerged as one of the high-growth sectors in India in recent years and looks to continue to stay that way for many more years ahead. With the Central Government launching its ambitious ‘Make in India’ program to place India on the world map as a manufacturing hub, the manufacturing sector has never been in such a good spot earlier.
Further with the help of ‘Make in India’ drive, India is also on the way to become a hub for hi-tech manufacturing with global giants like Foxconn, Boeing, GE, Siemens, HTC, Toshiba, etc, either have set-up or are in the process of setting up manufacturing plants in India.
Among the world’s 10 largest manufacturing countries today, India can look to better days ahead as the Government of India has set an ambitious target of increasing the contribution of manufacturing output to 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025, from 16 per cent currently.
Amidst the positive developments, the manufacturing companies will be increasingly grappling with skill-gap issues and unable to find qualified candidates for open positions. This will compel the skill-development of the enormous talent pool in India to act as one of the critical levers of the growth. With a potential to touch US$ 1 trillion by 2025 and account for 25-30 percent of the country’s GDP, creating nearly 90 million domestic jobs by 2025, India’s manufacturing sector will continue to project a positive picture in the coming years.
Conclusion:
It’s interesting to note that a survey report titled, ‘Salary and Employment Outlook’ by global recruitment specialists Michael Page, has disclosed that the global economic slowdown in 2016 did not have any considerable impact on India’s employment market and instead the year was a positive one all through on the employment front. The optimism is so infectious that nearly 80 per cent employers in India are confident that hiring activity would continue to maintain a steady growth in 2017.
