18 million Indians would be forced to new jobs due to pandemic: Reports

The pandemic of Covid-19 will have a long-lasting effect on markets across the country and worldwide. As much as 18 million Indians labour-force would be forced to change in their occupation and take up a new occupation by 2030, simply because of the pandemic, according to a report.

The report by McKinsey Global Institute said that the impact would be more on the low-wage workers’ category in the retail, food services, hospitality and administration domains. It also identifies the impact on labour demands, a mix of occupations and skills required in eight countries.

The pandemic caused changes that would continue to persist which are the rise of remote work, virtual interactions and increased employability of e-commerce and the rapid growth of automation and AI industry, which would lead to a serious switching in jobs in the upcoming decade. This changing job group of people will constitute 100 million workers out of which 18 million would be from India itself.

The country would see a decline in the total work hours expended by physical and manual skills by 2.2% whereas time towards technological skills would increase by 3.3%, according to the report.

The pandemic may also reduce the availability of the low-wage job which served as the major portion for displaced workers. The work from home or remote work would continue to expand, business travel would see a decline and gig work is set to expand. New urgency for companies to provide the workers with skills needed in future would be created over time, as said by an expert.