A Big Boost to Job Market

The adoption of 5G in India will not only transform the way sectors do business but will also enable the country to create new job opportunities.

By Gautam Vohra

5G will go down in history as an enabler, a catalyst that allowed all sectors to explore their full potential. 5G will be the game-changer that will power distributed computing. With 5G, the nature of data will undergo a fundamental change; it will become more inbound, real-time, and infused with AI. Businesses across industries will be able to capitalize on this real-time data access, derive insight, deploy new services, capitalize on new 5G business opportunities, and unlock entirely new revenue-generating models.

One of the biggest gainers of 5G adoption would be the Indian IT sector. For Indian IT firms, 5G is a golden bet that they can’t ignore as it has a potential of close to USD30 billion business opportunity. Further, the global investment in the next 12-15 years is expected to be around USD3.5 trillion which means that the IT and telecom sector will witness a growth in financials, projects, and jobs.

The public-private opportunities that will open up owing to 5G will also help the IT sector as it will create a need for a different layer of IT requirements and give them another window to explore. The recent move by the government wherein a relief package and relaxation on AGR were announced for the telecom companies coupled with the PLI package for telecom OEM will also give a direct and indirect boost to the IT industry as the sector will have a pivotal role to build 5G space in telecom.

The growing opportunities will also fuel job creation. Starting with Q4 the job opportunities focusing on 5G by the IT sector are expected to grow. The IT sector promises roles of around 90+ skills for 5G focussed areas and catering to the telecom industry, which in return makes it a dominant field that cannot be ignored by any top IT organizations. The focus is how to get the talent and develop solutions needed for their end customer. There has been a 35% growth in demand during the past six months across IT organizations that are leading 5G projects.

Categories like development, IT infra, QA, production support for 5G space technologies are where the real traction has built up and the industry is seeing good traction. The hiring demands for Java, PL/SqL, .Net developers, cloud, SAP, UI/UX, RPA, Sybase, IOS/Android/Build, network security, data security, CyberArch, performance tester/PB tester, configuration management, release, and deployment, etc. have also gone up significantly. The rollout of 5G is also expected to open up job opportunities in the field of internet on things (IoT), integration, network optimization, and testing. Profiles in the areas of development, quality assurance, production support, and infrastructure are also witnessing a boom.

Indian IT major giants are working on 5G rollout platforms for which the scope of jobs have spiked in HD video conferencing and software-as-a-service enabled applications development, which in turn will help IT firms to gear up and leverage opportunities that are opening up in the healthcare industry. Some of the IT organizations have started to classify telecom, mobiletech, gaming, edutech, and healthcare – sectors that are expected to be impacted heavily by 5G – as separate verticals or segments. Job creation has already started and hiring has opened up.

Also, the Indian telecom market and allied services are building up capacity to cater to the services. With 5G projected to create new opportunities for software development, artificial intelligence (AI), network implementation and transmission, product enhancement towards mobile, communication, and broadband one can expect a new spike of job opportunities. The industry is projected to create approximately 1,00,000 to 1,50,000 jobs during the period 2021 to 2025. This will include talent who are directly involved and indirectly involved towards the technology execution in the market – nearly 40% skill segment development, 30% quality assurance and infrastructure, and production support.

There is also an upward trend of setting up research and development centers and hubs getting stationed in Indian cities, primarily in IT corridors. This is a very positive sign for talents. There is a lot of positive response from telecom and IT companies collaborating and opening Global Delivery Centres (GDC) in India. More than eight top telecom technology companies have established GDCs in the country catering to global needs. They are also ramping up their headcount and adding resources. Further, the growth of mid-sized IT firms is taking the lead on telecom projects and making India a hub of GDC centers in space.

While the opportunities are exploding, both for players in the sector as well as talent, the real challenges in today’s world relate to the upskilling and reskilling of existing resources, as well as ensuring the new aspirants are equipped with the knowledge to meet the current needs.

This gap in the demand supply is forcing companies to explore newer types of partners and models of talent acquisition. Some of the companies are developing and entering into partnerships for certifications on 5G through regular training and knowledge sharing programs in collaboration with Telecom Skill Sector Council, whereas others are collaborating with staffing companies to help them with the right mix. They are also reaching out to staffing companies and are adopting the hire, train, and deployment model.

In a nutshell, 5G will not only transform the way sectors do business it will also boost the job creation in the country significantly.

Vohra is VP & Business Head – Telecom & Engineering Staffing, TeamLease Digital.