Path to Revival: Strong demand for blue-collar workers, full-time jobs on offer

Business activity may not have recovered to pre-pandemic levels but, at 0.5 million, openings for blue collar workers in the July-September period were reasonably strong. Some of this relates to the upcoming festive season but a large part of this demand is for permanent jobs.

Experts say it’s likely 2020 could end with 1.4 million vacancies being filled. Data sourced from Betterplace, a technology platform for managing the lifecycle of informal and semi-formal workforce, shows nine million interviews have been targetted. The demand in segments such as delivery and healthcare segment is expected to surpass January 2020 levels.

The good news is that nearly 80% of the jobs on offer are for full-time employment, Pravin Agarwala, co-founder and CEO, Betterplace told FE. “The demand during the festive season stems mainly from the retail sector so some some of this is for temporary jobs. But demand for full-time jobs is expected to sustain post the festive season,” Agarwala said.

Also, employers are keen on skilled manpower and are willing to pay a premium of 15-20% for experience. The average salary ranges between Rs 18,000 and Rs 30,000 per month for delivery persons and Rs 12,000–Rs 20,000 for security guards. Nurses command monthly salaries of anywhere between Rs 13,000 and Rs 28,000 per month; these have risen by more than 30% in the last few months.

Employees are being wooed with medical insurance, emergency financial support, safety procedures and protocols for safe working environments against Covid. “Along with safe and healthy working conditions, employees are also looking at a fixed component to their wages as compared to the usual transactional (per delivery) model,” Agarwala said.

To be sure, the numbers are down about 10% compared to last year.Nonethless, there is demand for blue-collar workers in sectors like retail, security services and facilities management.Sectors like logistics, manufacturing and healthcare have seen an increase in hiring of 10-15%.Interestingly, a-third of the demand is emanating from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Maximum job creation will happen in Bengaluru, followed by Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai. Chennai is projected to end the year at 100% of its Q1 demand while Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru will recover greater than 70% of demand.