Automation to eat away one third of low skill jobs by 2022

Almost one-third of 'low-skilled' jobs, about 7 lakh, will be lost on account of automation in Indian IT by 2022 says US-based research firm HfS Research.

However, the report also predicts the number of 'medium-skilled' and 'high-skilled' jobs to go up by 1 lakh and 1.9 lakh, respectively. Worldwide, HfS Research said that by 2022, the IT industry would see a net decrease of 7.5% in headcount with countries like the US, UK and India taking a hit.

The report shows a marginal uptake of IT jobs in Philippines.

The research firm cites the aggressive uptake of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI as the primary reasons for the reduction in headcount. It adds that RPA is merely accelerating the elimination of rote jobs while increasing the need of high-skilled jobs by 57%.

While “companies are taking time to build the impact of RPA into service contracts ... Time is on our side to manage the transition and train staff for the future,“ the report said.“The next fives years we can manage, it's the five after that when the impact on labor becomes much more challenging.“

The firm has increased the predicted low-skilled job loss numbers from 6.4 lakh at the end of 2021 in a report published last year to 7 lakhs by 2022 in the latest report. In this scenario, the report predicts that 20% of the total workforce needs to be re-skilled to be employable.

Courtesy :CIO.ECONOMICTIMES.INDIATIMES

IoT will impact 120,000 jobs in India by 2021

Even as Indian IT firms corner a large chunk of the market that arises from services related to the internet-of-things, the country will lose about 69,000 jobs until 2021 due to the adoption of the technology, a report by consulting firm Zinnov said.

This number is over and above the hundreds of thousands of jobs that experts say will be lost due to automation in IT and will predominantly impact unskilled and blue-collar workers.

"Internet-of-things technology will impact 120,000 jobs in the country by 2021. 94,000 jobs will be eliminated, and 25,000 jobs will be created in the five-year period," Hardik Tiwari, engagement lead at Zinnov.

Internet-of-things (IoT) is the term used to describe the addition of sensors and chips to machinery which allows them to the monitored and controlled over the internet.

People working in areas such as office administration, support staff and those in maintenance will see their roles being taken over by technology. The new jobs created will be IoT product managers, robot co-ordinators, industrial programmers and network engineers.

Newer technologies are expected to constrict job supply in some areas. In July, research firm HfS predicted that India's IT services industry would lose 6.4 lakh "lowskilled" jobs to automation in the next five years. The HfS report stated that though "low-skilled" jobs will fall by 30%, "mediumskilled" jobs will increase by 8% and high-skilled jobs will rise by 56%.

But despite the overall job losses, Indian firms are expected to benefit from adoption of IoT.

Indian firms currently have about 40% of the addressed IoT services market a share that is expected to rise to 44% by 2021, as they boost their capabilities through acquisitions.

"There is a lot of demand from service providers for niche internet-for-things players with intellectual property and platforms. This will help increase the industry's market share," Tiwari said.

But the addressed market of $2.8 billion, currently, is just a fraction of the overall IoT services market of $66 billion, as companies are not as yet outsourcing their spend. The addressed market is expected to reach $7.3 billion in 2021.

The Indian domestic market contributes $1.6 billion to the overall IoT market, the report said, and is expected to grow to $3.8 billion in the next five years. Indian corporates are leading the charge in spending on IoT, accounting for 80% of the spend.

The government contributes just 20% to the domestic IoT market. ET has reported that the technology is being used to bring transparency to the scam-hit iron ore sector in Goa and in sandmining in states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Courtesy : Ecnomictimes