5G rollout may worsen skills crunch in technology sector

Indian companies preparing to take advantage of the 5G rollout may find it difficult to get skilled individuals who can help build applications for the next-generation services.
According to hiring firms, Teamlease and NLB Business Services, 5G rollout could increase the jobs crunch in the technology sector, with rising demand for skilled individuals, including engineers, who are already in short supply.

A May 2022 report by the Telecom Sector Skills Council (TSSC) estimates that India will need 22 million skilled manpower by 2025 to reap the benefits of 5G, but the demand-supply gap stands at 28%.

According to Sachin Alug, chief executive,  NLB Services, demand for niche skills such as radio frequency engineers, 5G open radio access network architecture specialists, user experience design professionals and artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality professionals are on the rise. “Many employers are laying off staff with unessential skillsets. Tech will evolve , and 5G will soon aggravate the skill shortage further,” he said.

Furthermore, jobs platform Indeed has witnessed a 34% rise in job postings for telecom and 5G sectors in the 12 months through September. Demand for telecom engineers grew 16% between August and September 2022.

The Monster Employment Index for September, released by job site Monster.com, showed similar trends. Telecom hiring was up 13% as firms launched digital services across cities, expanded data centre capabilities, and hired for specialized roles, it said.

Shortage of security professionals may also rise “There was a talent mismatch of 25% for security between August 2019 and August 2022. 5G will lead to a major spike in jobs for design security systems and strengthen network architectures,” said Saumitra Chand, career expert, Indeed India.

Companies will also need people to ramp up sales. Mayur Taday, chief business officer, TeamLease Services, said more professionals will be required for pan-India broadband penetration, resulting in more demand for sales, installation and wiring technicians.

He said the rollout of 5G services will continue for the next two years and it is expected to create 1,000 new jobs every month.

“At the advanced level, where 5G Internet of Things (IoT) is helping to grow use cases in gaming, education, healthcare, smart homes, agriculture among others, we see a dearth of highly-skilled IT professionals with skills in IoT, AI, ML, data science and analytics, cloud, information security, data centres, green energy etc. and this is where telecom and technology companies can work together,” he said.

“Since 5G rollout has only just started, it will present a variety of use cases for industries including agricultural, retail, healthcare, gaming, financial services, energy & utilities, and more, altering the employment needs for the upcoming quarters and years,” Taday said, adding that “employers will place a high value on specialised knowledge because everyone will be competing for the same jobs”.

To be sure, telcos and firms are also looking to upskill employees to meet these demands. Spokesperson from Reliance Jio agreed that the process of building a talent pool is continuous and ongoing keeping in mind the target of national deployment of 5G by December 2023.

“In such a scenario, it will be standard practice to upskill existing employees and teach new ones in 5G enabled technologies like AI and machine learning, IoT devices, big data analytics, cloud computing, and other digital platforms in developing applications, starting in educational institutions,” the person said.

Anurag Dua, Partner at EY, said that telcos should work in collaboration with IT companies, startups and global capability centres (GCC), for specialized services. “For long term training needs, the government has to work alongside academicians to bring changes in the curriculum of the engineering colleges to fill these gaps and guide candidates to build depth of expertise and think vertically,” he said.