India's current job scenario and some career options in this crisis time

The Covid 19 pandemic has impacted the lives of more than 555 million workers, as per the government data. In India, the unemployment rate reached 27.1 percent in early May, as nearly 122 million Indians lost their jobs between March and April, according to Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy.

 The Indian job market has seen an entropy few months amid the Covid-19 crisis with huge job losses and an exponential unemployment rise. But that is just the overall story. For one specific segment, the threat seems to be a matter of much concern: white-collar jobs are front-row in the firing line.

Around 41 lakh of India’s youth has lost jobs because of the pandemic while employment prospects have gotten severely challenged in Asia and the Pacific, according to a joint report by the International Labour Organization and the Asian Development Bank.

Two-thirds of firm-level apprenticeships and three quarters of internships were completely interrupted during the pandemic, the ILO-ADB report shows, adding that people aged 15-24 years will be much harder hit than adults in the immediate crisis and face a higher risk of longer-term economic and social costs.

Nearly 50 lakh salaried jobs were lost in July, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). This took the total job losses to around 1.89 crore despite a marginal recovery in the rate of employment driven by the informal sector. "While salaried jobs are not lost easily, once lost they are also far more difficult to retrieve. Therefore, their ballooning numbers are a source of worry," CMIE cautioned.

According to another ILO report, India being a lower-middle income country spells further trouble for its educated youth and job market. The rate of youth unemployment is higher for low-income and lower-middle income countries with advanced education levels, the report shows.

"In low-income countries, workers who struggle the most to find suitable jobs are those with an advanced educational level, while in high-income countries, it is those with a basic educational level or less," said ILO.

Simply put: there is a higher share of the highly educated among the unemployed than the employed. People with advanced education are over-represented among the unemployed in 82 per cent of low-income countries and only 10 per cent of high-income countries. Furthermore, skilled jobs may even be scarce in low-income countries, creating a mismatch between skills required versus the skills of job seekers, added ILO.

"Prioritizing youth employment in the Covid-19 recovery process will improve Asia and the Pacific's future prospects for inclusive and sustainable growth, demographic transition and social stability," PTI quoted Chris Morris, head of the ADB NGO and civil society center and leading ADB's Youth for Asia initiative, as saying.

(COVID-19) might have caused uncertainties on the country's job market, but the demand for niche job skills has not dried up. Corporates are hiring talent to select roles that require specialised certifications in niche skills across business segments. Here are 10 skills in demand across Indian corporates in times of COVID-19:

Python programming language:

Python is the second most loved programming language, according to StackOverflow developer survey, and for a reason. It is easier to learn, efficient and is usually the programming language taught in schools and colleges. So it is one of the most preferred languages for data scientists, Artificial intelligence and machine learning experts due to its flexibility and simplicity across the sectors.

According to UpGrad blog, an edtech platform, Python developers’ salary is high across the world as tech majors such as Google and Facebook are adopting Python. The blog states that an average data scientist salary is about Rs 7 lakh per annum and with experience it could go as much as Rs 17 lakh.

Node Javascript (Node.js):

 It is another programming language that is more in demand. According to monterail.com, one of the reasons for the demand is that it is used for building data-intensive real-time Internet of Things (IoT) devices and applications. Executives  Moneycontrol spoke to recently, said that IoT-based products and services are one of the focus areas for IT services firms.

Node.js is an open-source server environment that runs on various platforms such as Windows, Linux and Unix for executing Javascript (JS). JS is a language used for creating webpages and is used across firms such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook.

Mobile application development

It is hardly a surprise that mobile development is one of the skills in demand. From booking cabs to buying groceries, everyone is going app-based and this would only accelerate as we are moving towards a touchless future. This means that mobile app developers for Android and iOS will be all the more in demand and companies will be more than happy to pay for them.

Maneesh Sharma, Country Manager, GitHub India, a platform for the developer community said, flutter, a platform for building mobile applications, is one of the most popular for developing mobile applications.

They are paid well too. According to an app developer, they can earn anywhere between Rs 50,000 for freshers and Rs 16 lakh, after a decade of experience in app development.

User interface/ User Experience design (UI/UX)

Unlike a few years back, UI or UX design has gained importance as the focus has shifted to user experience with clients more willing to pay for it. An IT executive working for a banking client said that while the company has not changed the backend, which is more complex, there is more focus on building UI to make it more customer-friendly.

“So, the focus is now on how to make it easy for everyone to access and how many steps does it need to complete a transaction. The fewer the steps, the better,” added another executive. The recent influx of app culture and tendency towards ease of use has only accelerated the demand for improved UL/UX design.

According to PayScale, the average salary of a UX designer is Rs 6.92 lakh per annum.

 

Digital curriculum developer

Be it the regular schools and colleges or educational-technology companies, COVID-19 has made it mandatory for the course curriculum to move online. A digital curriculum developer is involved in designing a web-friendly content curriculum for institutes, corporates and individuals. Certification in web design, learning management software and basic video editing skills would come handy for this job role.

HR firms told Moneycontrol there is a 25 percent year-on-year increase in demand for this role in FY21 due to the lockdown. The average salary ranges from Rs 5.6 lakh per annum to as high as Rs 15 lakh for niche corporate programmes.

An allied area to this field is instructional designer where a target audience is identified and their skill gaps are looked at. Post this, relevant courses and skills are recommended to this group. The average salary for an instructional designer in India as per PayScale is Rs 5.3 lakh per annum.

 

Information privacy certified professional

With the majority of India Inc working from since March 25 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, data privacy and information security/protection have been under threat. To deal with this, companies across sectors are hiring privacy officers in their teams. Certification in information privacy from recognised institutes would be necessary for landing a job.

The job roles for this skillset include chief privacy officers and support staff. Human resource officials estimate that the country would need at least 1,000 chief privacy officers (CPO) over the next 8-12 months to meet the needs of corporates.

Paid a handsome salary of Rs 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh per month, the chief privacy officer’s job role is to ensure privacy for the data of staff and clients/customers. The company privacy policy implementation is in the hands of the CPO who is also involved in maintaining the confidentiality of the information and also ensure compliance.

Chief actuary

With the rise in concerns about future risks in the financial sector and how it would be managed, the role of actuary is in high demand. India with a population of 1.3 billion people has only 460 fully qualified actuarial professionals.

The actual demand for fully qualified actuarial sciences professionals in India is more than three times the supply. However, a lack of awareness of the career opportunities and students dropping out midway has led to the low number.

The starting salary of an actuary could be Rs 7 lakh which can go up to Rs 30 lakh with the number of years of work experience. Sectors like banking, insurance and broking firms employ actuaries.

Digital project management

A digital project manager runs projects to build websites and mobile apps through discovery, planning, production, deployment and maintenance.

Considering the shift in business strategies of companies from physical to digital due to COVID-19, digital project managers are in high demand.

A project management course with certification in Six Sigma, Agile and DevOps can help individuals land their dream jobs in sectors like IT, online retail and e-commerce.

The average salary in this role according to HR experts is Rs 15 lakh to 24 lakh per annum.

Financial risk manager

Individuals with a certified financial risk manager (FRM) qualification are in high demand in the risk management teams of financial institutions, be it banks, investment firms, insurers and mutual funds. FRMs are involved in managing investment risks, trade risks as well as liquidity risks and market risks. During a tough market condition, FRM helps the investment team with the strategy in managing financial prudence.

Clearing the FRM examination (Part 1 and 2) is a must for individuals seeking senior roles within risk management teams of companies. Individuals need to have two years of relevant work experience after passing the FRM examination to become a qualified Certified Financial Risk Manager.

The average pay package of an FRM in India ranges from Rs 9 lakh to 12 lakh per annum.

Salesforce certification

Salesforce, the customer relationship management service (CRM) provider is considered among the most advanced CRM technology in the world. To manage this ecosystem, Salesforce offers targeted certification programmes to aspiring professionals in administrator or developer areas.

Apart from IT professionals, HR experts said Salesforce certifications are also in demand among sales professionals across retail giants across India who have been eyeing cloud certifications through this platform. Salesforce is a US-based cloud software company.

A study by market intelligence firm IDC study said that a total of 3.3 million jobs will be created globally in the Salesforce ecosystem by 2022. In India, the average salary for a Salesforce certified professional ranges between Rs 6 lakh to 8 lakh per annum.