India is expected to grow at around 7.2% in FY 2023 despite being in the recovery phase post the Covid-19 pandemic and at the same time, witnessing the global headwinds of inflation owing to the Russia-Ukraine war. The government as well as the private sector are taking conscious steps to mitigate the impact of the current volatile global geo-political environment on the Indian economy. The country is investing and stepping up its physical and social infrastructure with multi-fold objectives of enhancing domestic manufacturing capabilities, attracting foreign investment and creating sustainable employment opportunities.

Though sectors such as IT/ITeS continue to thrive on the back of digital transformation of organisations, there are segments such as healthcare/pharma, EdTech, E-commerce, telecom and cybersecurity that have assumed heightened importance in the post covid era. 

According to a CII report, hiring activity is expected to post 31 per cent growth in 2022 across 7 key sectors viz. automotive, BFSI, global in-house centers, heavy engineering and manufacturing, internet businesses, information technology, and pharmaceuticals. As we come out of the pandemic and travel restrictions wane off, the travel and hospitality sector is  also witnessing revival and growth. In June 2022, hiring in travel and hospitality grew by 125 percent YoY. . These sectors are expected to continue their growth momentum in the coming quarter as well. 

As the economic activity picks up, skilled workforce remains a huge challenge for India more so with the ever evolving technological needs of the industry. The demand for digital skills is witnessing an unprecedented growth. As per our recently launched, Randstad Talent Trends Report, Java still stands as the highest hired IT skill in the junior (15.2%) and middle levels (21.89%). In the middle level, cloud architects (4.98%) and project management (4.95%) move to the second and third places as the skills in demand. At senior levels, IT organizations hire more for creating customer experiences (32.83%), and software engineering (7.95%). So, these are definitely the skills to watch out for in the coming quarter as well.

In the healthcare segment, it is expected that the industry will bring about a culture of R&D and innovation for swift drug discovery and development, which will have positive health outcomes across the world. The imperative of accelerated drug discovery, development and delivery will call for higher skill sets in genomics, immunology, bioinformatics and clinical pharmacology.

Demand is also on a rise for niche skills including metaverse, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning. There were an estimated 55,000 job openings related to the metaverse ecosystem at the beginning of July 2022.

Despite its challenges, the Indian industry is poised to grow and witness diverse skill demand across sectors. Only through skilling, reskilling and upskilling, we can attain a demographic advantage that would lead to better employment opportunities and higher growth for the nation.