Indian telecom, allied services industry to generate 10 lakh jobs in 3 years: India Skills Report 2016

NEW DELHI: The Indian telecom and allied services industry is expected to generate, directly and indirectly, over 10 lakh jobs in the next three years, even as the hiring activity in the sector will grow 20% this year, according to India Skills Report 2016.

The India Skills Report 2016 is a result of a joint initiative of PeopleStrong, Wheebox, in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry, LinkedIn and Association of Indian University(AIU).

In year 2015, the report said that the telecom & allied services did not show any positive sentiment, and was one of the lowest among hiring sectors.

Currently, the growing telecom industry has about 18% of rural population and 82% people in cities who are dependent on mobile and internet, showing the number of career opportunities in this field.

With the government taking favourable steps to provide a conducive environment for service providers and the auction of 3G and 4G services, the telecom sector is going for large-scale hiring, the report said.

Constant addition of subscriber base in the mobile, fixed line, wireless, and broadband services has fuelled a need for more jobs in the sector, it added.

In the hiring-mix, employers have not made any major changes in the way they hire. In this sector engineers (43.17%) are still getting hired the most followed by ITIs (25.18%) & management graduates (14.39%).

“This trend will continue and shows the maturity of the businesses to grow, which is the reason why telecom as a sector that requires lot of expertise to innovate and grow are looking for specialists in large numbers unlike year 2015 in which the focus was on making maximum utilization of existing specialists,” the report said.

The report however added that the “employability” of these engineers still remains a challenge and this increase in the need of engineers means that the time for making the engineers job ready is less, and rapid steps need to be taken to make them employable.

For most employers in this sector, internal referrals came across as the most preferred sourcing channels, closely followed by job portals and social media.

Internal referrals have been the favourites as they bring about varied benefits like reduction in early attrition, lesser sourcing time, and lower cost.

This year social media recruitment has shown an increase while other options like consultants, among others are losing their charm, the report revealed.