Will real estate boost demand for workers?
- By Katya Naidu
Amongst many others, in spite of talk of slowdown, construction and real estate in India is expected to employ a large number of people in both skilled and unskilled categories. Real estate and construction is the second largest seasonal employment provider, coming next only after agriculture, in India. It is however not recognized as much because of its unorganized nature, in spite of the being the country’s second largest employer. Construction is also the largest reason for migrant growth as it employs around 36 percent of the total short-duration migrants, pegged at around 15 million.
Growth & demand of workers
The real estate sector is expected to grow rapidly from now due to thrust on new opportunities within the sector. The first one is the growth in affordable housing as a part of through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana which plans to build housing for all by 2022. That would mean a lot of construction and the estimated demand for workers in the sector is at 76.5 million, according to a report by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The second reason for growth in the sector is the expansion of companies in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as they attempt to reign in costs, spurring more expansion. The third factor that will boost the need for workers is new projects announced and executed by the government like smart cities, e-cities and other construction related projects.
“The construction sector specifically is projected to grow to Rs 11,954 bn by 2017. It is the largest contributor to central exchequer and second largest employer in the country. It creates more than 45 million jobs either directly or indirectly among various classes of individuals in the country,” said the NSDC report.
Skilled workers in short supply
India has a short of skilled workers like technicians, electricians, plumbers and other jobs which requires skills. Most of these workers are not formally trained and have been informal apprentices. Lack of interest in blue collared jobs amongst employable youth is one of the many reasons for low number of skilled workers. Apart from that, lack of a number of training institutes that provide such training facilities too aids this growing gap in the construction sector. Over 97 percent of workers between the ages of between 15 and 65 have no exposure to any form of training, leaving a large section of the workforce in an unskilled state.
Unfortunately, it is these kinds of skilled workers that will drives the growth of construction sector. Technicians and foremen have had the maximum growth of 95 percent between 2005 and 2011 in terms of employment. This is followed by unskilled workforce which stands at 34 percent.
(Katya Naidu has been working as a business journalist for the last nine years, and has covered beats across banking, pharma, healthcare, telecom, technology, power, infrastructure, shipping and commodities)