Retail, IT/ITES to create 13.5 mln jobs for skilled workers by 2010'

New Delhi, Sep 26 (UNI) The booming retail, information technology (IT) and ITES sectors will create 13.5 million job opportunities for the skilled workforce by 2010, Assocham said today.

It is estimated that by 2010, there will be expected demand for 2.5 million skilled workers, the industry chamber said in a paper brought out on 'Future Prospects for Job Opportunities in Retail, IT&ITEs.

''The 180-billion dollar retail industry right now employs nearly 21 million people, accounting for roughly 6.7 per cent of the total employment. However, employment in organised retailing has witnessed marginal growth, and its share in India is close to an abysmally low 2 per cent, leaving the huge market potential largely untapped,'' Assocham President Anil K Agarwal said.

He added that in the retail industry, the demand for skilled workers will naturally rise to the projected level because of its massively growing size.

The paper says IT&ITES sectors have consistently provided employment opportunities to a large number of workforces.

In 1999-2000, the number of people working for IT sector was 2,84,000, which has grown to a phenomenal one million in 2004-05.

The ITES BPO sector currently provides employment to 3,48,000 people, according to experts, which is estimated to grow to more than a million in 2008.

According to the growth pattern of the sector, it is estimated that the IT&ITES sector is likely to provide an employment opportunity to 9 million people by the end of the financial year 2008. This projection will go up by 2.5 million by 2010, said Mr Agarwal.

The other sector which will provide ample opportunity for employent according to the Assocham paper will be tourism, textile and the financial sector.

Attracting a large quantum of investment, smoothening flows of investment and removing inefficiencies in the financial system would be the foundation of financial sector reforms for India.

As the economy would require a substantial amount of funds, domestic sources may not be adequate and hence the need to tap external sources. Consequently, India would have to attract more FDI inflows into the economy.

The unorganised financial sector has grown 8.3 per cent from 1994-2001, while the banking sector holds a wealth of career opportunities for Indian Professionals, and is predicted to increase 16 per cent between 2005 and 2012.

The textile industry is a self-reliant industry from the production of raw materials to the delivery of final products with considerable value addition at each stage of processing.

India's textile industry is an attractive sector that is poised for higher growth. As on March 2001 the number of labour (organised and unorganised) employed in the textile industry was around 81.95 million, and is expected to grow to 90.95 million by 2006-07, thereby projecting a growth of 8.95 per cent.

The tourism sector's potential for employment generation is immense both in terms of numbers and cost effectiveness. Tourism provided direct employment to 8.5 million people, accounting for 2.4 per cent of the labour force, in 1995-96. The figure went up to 9.1 million in 1996-97.

Indirect employment was of the order of 21.4 million. Employing only 2.4 per cent of the Indian workforce, the vast potential of tourism as an instrument of employment generation and poverty alleviation has tended to remain largely unutilised.

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