Mumbai : Almost 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the workforce in the retail sector would be deployed in jobs that have radically changed skill set requirements in the next five years, according to a recently released report.
The joint report by FICCI-Nasscom and EY on the nature of jobs pointed out that 95 per cent of industry experts believed that creation of highly optimized supply chains would drive growth in retail in the next five years.
It also said that more than 76 per cent of the industry experts believe that rising middle-class and business innovation would drive growth in the sector.
“New business models such as e-commerce and mobile based e-retailing are increasingly becoming popular in India across tier I, II and III cities. The impact of this growth is already visible on the job market,” Anurag Malik, partner, people and organization, Advisory Services, EY, said.
“The e-commerce companies are creating new job profiles in logistics, warehousing, web and app design, system integration, customer service, big data and machine learning. Hence, the need is to acquire new skill set through training, learning and development, adopt technology and be market ready for the changing job roles in the retail sector,” he added.
The EY report, based on a survey, has identified 12 mega trends that would lead the way for future of jobs in 2022.
These include topics like the level of Indian exports, rapid adoption of technologies in the advanced markets and its impact on off-shoring, the changes in the overseas job market for Indian workforce and the level of foreign investments, among others.
It also stressed on the demand for a resourceful planet and sustainability, and under demographic changes, it cited increasing urbanization, and the rise in middle-class, as well as a higher proportion of young population.
The potential new job roles that the retail industry respondents have listed are retail data analyst, digital imaging leader, IT process modeller, digital marketing specialist and customer experience leader.
Some of the threatened jobs in the sector are cashier, inventory associate, sales representative and stock boy. The maximum impact of adoption of technology on jobs will be felt in warehouse management, the report noted.
The report noted that 90 per cent of the respondents believe that collaboration with other industry partners for creation of a larger ecosystem and making changes in existing processes are key initiatives by industry players. Further, re-skilling of employees was rated as a key initiative by 71 per cent of the industry players.The report also said that 95 per cent respondents expect big data and cloud to be a key technology trend in the coming years.
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