IT, BFSI and e-commerce to lead job growth despite economic slowdown

Company officials estimate that the IT sector has been able to register a net growth in job creation despite high attrition levels

The segments of information technology (IT), BFSI (banking, financial service and insurance), education and new-age aggregators are maintaining their pace of hiring of entry and mid-level professionals, says jobs portal Indeed India.

Sashi Kumar, managing director at the portal, says depsite the current economic slowdown, the IT sector is hiring significantly. The financial sector and new-age technology aggregators have maintained the earlier pace of job creation.

“The slowdown is a global phenomenon. In the IT segment, hiring has been significant and these companies are looking for experienced professionals having domain expertise about the Java programming language. BFSI and the aggregators have also been hiring,” he says. Company officials estimate that not only has the IT sector has been able to register net growth in job creation despite high attrition levels but average salary in the sector has also increased by 30 per cent from 2014 to date. With several tech-backed educational start-ups entering the market, many high-value jobs are being created in the education and training sector. Professionals across the country are also upskilling or reskilling themselves. 

“As more professionals acquire the skills to fulfill the increasing tech-centric job roles, demand in the education sector is likely to increase further,” says Zairus Master, chief executive at Shine.com.

He says IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) remains the highest growing sector across the globe. In India, there is this accelerated growth of innovative technologies such as cloud computing, data science, the internet of things (IoT) and mobile app development, among others. 

According to his portal, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, augmented/virtual reality and natural language processing are already creating millions of jobs. 

However, these domains also need people with a specific set of skills that Indian graduates lack. Therefore, there is a dire need for graduates and professionals to upskill themselves by unlocking the potential of online learning platforms. Such platforms allow professionals to combine traditional and new-age competencies to strengthen their position in the job market. Besides IT/ITeS, a major chunk of such professionals will be absorbed by the retailing, BFSI, health care and e-commerce sectors. 

The evolution of technology in these sectors has transformed jobs and created the need to hire more professionals who possess top-notch technological skills, along with traditional ones. For instance, a typical BFSI position would require a professional to be equipped with sales, actuarial, goods and services tax and skills. Similarly, a professional in retailing would be given preference and even a higher package if he possesses a basic knowledge of AI, ML, automation or robotics. 

Shine.com says cross-functional skills will be the key requisite for employees in the coming years. 

“As businesses continue to go digital, we can expect a sharp rise in digital marketing, content writing and social media marketing domains. Avenues from coding and programming in Python and Django to UI/UX development and data visualisation are also set to gain momentum in India,” Master says. 

In its biannual survey report, Shine.com says despite the slowdown, mid-level hiring is set to witness a significant surge in the coming months.