India’s Information Technology (IT) job market is likely to take an automation hit.
Campus recruitment of graduates across engineering colleges is looking at its first dip since 2009, a time when global recession had led to significant job losses and lower hiring by companies, as companies resort to automation in entry-level coding jobs and look at optimizing their bench strength.
“With clients worldwide tightening their IT spends and the IT industry grasping digital and its nuances, companies are focusing on strengthening their existing workforce while trying to understand what the future will hold in terms of skills, jobs and work. From a one-time training system, IT companies will need to adopt ongoing and sustainable training while incentivising self learning,” says Nasscom president R Chandrasekhar.
A US-based research firm HfS Research predicts that India’s IT services industry will lose 6.4 lakh ‘low-skilled’ jobs to automation in the next five years.
By 2021, HfS said that the IT industry worldwide would see a net decrease of 9 per cent in headcount, or about 1.4 million jobs.
“India churns out nearly 16 lakh graduate engineers every year, of which nearly two lakh are absorbed by the IT industry – the largest organized recruiter at the campus,” the report states.
Nasscom says fresh hiring in the current financial year may be lower than last year as IT companies are facing pressure on margins, besides focusing on automation of jobs.
“Hiring activity in the year before last was 2.20 lakh (new jobs were created in IT sector). Last year, (FY 2015-16) there were about two lakh additions. This financial year, we are expecting it to be on the lower side of that”, says Chandrasekhar.
But all is not that bleak.
Read Also: Engineering campus hiring may fall first time since 2009: Nasscom
The HfS report points that while process-based jobs will perish, the industry will see a 56 per cent increase in high-skilled jobs. High-skilled jobs require creative problem solving, analytics and critical thinking.
So, if you have to stay relevant in the IT sector, there is enough scope. Here are 10 high-skill jobs that will help you stay secure professionally:
> Web production lead
> Product designers and simulation engineers
> Data scientist
> Digital marketing head
> Mobile product development engineers
> Product developers
> Actuary (The focus is on this point from our side!)
> Information security analysts
> Research and development engineers
> Quality assurance analysts
The mid-skilled have a chance to upgrade their knowledge quotient.
For the low-skilled, short-term courses in integration and management services, web research and content management can increase their employability quotient.
Till educational institutes revise their courses, one will have to pick up some new skills for better jobs.
Well, We shouldn’t think too much about our security due to automation of IT, What do you think?