According to the TeamLease report, the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry is expected to generate about 3 lakh jobs this fiscal year. The report 'Digital Employment Outlook Report for H1-2023', which is created by TeamLease Digital, a specialised staffing division of TeamLease Services, has highlighted that digital skills have observed a major influx of 8.4% by 2022. 

The IT-BPM industry is observing a growth of 7% in the workforce in FY23 and as per the report, the overall headcount has increased from 5.1 million to 5.45 million (est. to be close to 3 lakh jobs) in the fiscal year.

The report also said that the demand for contractual staffing will also increase due to the influx of investments and rapid adoption of technologies all over the industry. This will lead to higher demand for tech talent, especially in an industry like IT-BPM. To match the demand, many candidates (1.5 lakhs) are upskilling themselves in specialised digital skills, as per the report.

TeamLease Digital's Chief Operating Officer Sunil C said, “IT-BPM industry continues to be a sunshine industry in India, being the largest employer in the private sector, employing about 3.9 million people, and contributing to over 8% of the GDP. Our industry also amounts to 55% of the global outsourcing market.”

He also added that the surveyors have estimated that India's technology employment will grow from 5 million to 10 million in the next few years.

Increasing work from home jobs popularising digital skills while managing attrition

Sunil observed that the increase in work-from-home avenues has led to the popularisation of digital skills, as the companies are taking the jobs to people instead of the other way around.

"For instance, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad are building digital skills owing to the strong presence of large Tier I players, product companies, GICs, and startups," He added.

With improving interest in digital skills, the IT-BPM has also observed higher attrition rates, which is expected to continue in the next quarters, according to the report. It also states that in FY23, contract staffing attrition is likely to increase from 49% to 50-55%.

However, on the brighter side, gender parity is improving as industry leaders are continuing contractual gender diversity in digital skills. In FY22, gender parity was at 20% which is expected to grow to 25% in FY23.

“Over the last 10 years, more IT-BPM companies are aligning the synergies to improve gender parity in the workforce. Today, the emphasis is not just on diversity but on inclusion as well. In fact, performance indicators reflect (up to 61%) that diversity and inclusion have augmented business performance,” Sunil added.

The report is based on a survey that interviewed more than 100 employers and gathered insights from engineering colleges across 500 cities.