3 lakh jobs to be added by March 2023 in IT-BPM sector

The IT-BPM workforce is on a trajectory to grow by 7 percent in FY2023, taking the overall headcount increasing from 5.1 million to 5.45 million, which is close to 3 lakh jobs, according to a report by TeamLease Digital.

TeamLease Digital, a subsidiary of TeamLease Services, has launched the “Digital Employment Outlook Report” for H1-2023, which is an extensive analysis of the IT-BPM industry in India.

The company has surveyed and interviewed more than 100 employers and gathered insights from engineering colleges across 500 cities. The survey highlights employment trends in the IT-BPM sector, skills in demand, hiring of engineering graduates, attrition & diversity trends, and global vs. India technology trends.

The report highlighted that the demand for digital skills will grow by 8.4 per cent by the end of this fiscal. It also mentioned the top 15 digital skills that will be in demand.

Fuelled by increased investments in the sector and rapid adoption of technology by enterprises, the demand for contractual staffing will also increase, as per the report findings.

The report indicated that the contractual staffing headcount is expected to grow by 21 per cent. Also, currently, IT services companies, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), and Product Development companies are the top contract staffing consumers contributing in an excess of 70 per cent to this trend.

Sunil C, Chief Operating Officer, TeamLease Digital, said, “IT-BPM industry continues to be a sunshine industry in India, being the largest employer in the private sector, employing about 3.9 million people, and contributing to over 8 per cent of the GDP. Our industry here also amounts to 55 per cent of the global outsourcing market. As a super-cycle of digitization and with more companies focusing on the rapid adoption of emerging technologies, demand for tech talent is going to see a strong surge in the coming quarters, especially in IT-BPM.”

“As employment opportunities surge and companies look for talent with specialised digital skills (reflective in the 8.4% growth in the demand for digital skills), candidates are also taking ownership of upskilling themselves. Incidentally, 1.5 Lakh professionals have upskilled themselves in digital-related technologies recently. Overall, we also estimate that India’s technology employment will grow from 5 million to 10 million in the next few years,” added Sunil C.

From a digital skills point of view, in FY-2023, at least 7 out of 10 IT companies will be looking for candidates with digital skills from emerging locations, as the demand for digital skills will witness an 8.4 per cent growth, the report suggested.

Furthermore, the report showed MarTech and IoT as two new additions to the digital skill set this year, with demand for MarTech expected to increase by 5-7 per cent and that of IoT by 4-6 per cent for FY-2023.

Sharing his views on the trend of expanded hiring, Sunil C, said, “Gone are the days, where talent would necessarily need to move to cities to find jobs. Today, with work-from-home avenues increasing and more non-metro locations becoming popular for digital skills, companies are taking the jobs to people, instead of candidates migrating to the cities looking for jobs. For instance, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad are building digital skills owing to the strong presence of large Tier 1 players, product companies, GICs, and startups. Not only this, but at least 20 per cent of the digital talent employed in Tier 1 cities are currently at emerging locations due to continuing work from home (WFH).”

He said, “Additionally, hiring of engineering graduates is also seeing momentum from emerging locations, but there is still untapped potential. Only 33 per cent of engineering graduates (4,95,000 from the 1.5 million) are getting hired and 35 per cent of the graduates are emerging from the top 500 cities. However, initiatives like degree apprenticeships and faster implementation of NEP will help make students more employable.”

“Over the last ten years, more IT-BPM companies are aligning the synergies to improve gender parity in the workforce. Today, the emphasis is not just on diversity but on inclusion as well. Performance indicators reflect (up to 61 percent) that diversity and inclusion have augmented business performance,” added Sunil C.

From an attrition perspective, India’s IT-BPM attrition continues to be on the higher side and this surge is expected to continue in the next quarters.

The report predicted that in FY-2023, contract staffing attrition is likely to increase from 49 percent to 50-55 percent. However, on the brighter side, gender parity is improving. Industry leaders are continuing contractual gender diversity in Digital Skills in FY-2022 (at 20 percent currently) and in FY23 it is going to grow to 25 percent.

Surprisingly, India annually produces 1.5 million engineering graduates, out of which only 3 percent of students land relevant jobs in technical domains, the report found.

Out of 1.5 million, on an average 33 percent, which is 0.5 million are getting hired in software from the Tier-1 and emerging locations. Estimates further suggest that 0.5 million engineering students are emerging from more than 2,500 engineering institutions located across the country.

Interestingly, it was found in the report that non-engineering students are estimated to be about 6 lakh. About 1.5 lakh professionals have moved to digital-related technologies through a career transition or upskilling.

Also, more than 75 percent of graduates are aware of the job opportunities in digital skills, especially in the last two years.

Source: GWFM NEWS