While the economy is growing, it is driven by efficiency. While capital expenditure led growth has minimised, organisations are steering growth through productivity improvements. The Indian industry is, therefore, targeting improvements in operational efficiencies but jobs are not growing in proportion to the growth in business. Technology is playing a major role in improving operational efficiencies. While the IT/ITeS and the pharma sectors will continue to add jobs, most others have a stagnant hiring outlook.

Examples from other economies reveal that job opportunities thrive and flourish in manufacturing-intensive economies. In India, most commodities from manufacturing-intensive industries are reliant on imports. Consequently, the only jobs that are created with growth in the commodities sector are those in trading. Trading, however, is a small employment generator in the manufacturing lifecycle. There is a big opportunity for the Indian economy to create manufacturing-led employment.

The SME sector can potentially be a big contributor to the growth story in India with 70 million people employed in it. In fact, presently SMEs are adding more jobs to the Indian economy compared to large companies.While the overall growth in employment in the economy is still positive, it is much lower compared to 10 years ago. There is a big opportunity for the education and E-commerce sectors to add more jobs to the economy, but they are not at this point.