The Hindu Business Line : Mangalore small units facing labour shortage

Mangalore May 29 `Think of retaining labourers first and then go in for marketing of products' is the situation SMEs (small and medium entrepreneurs) here are facing today. The short supply of labour force — both skilled and unskilled — has hit them hard.

Most entrepreneurs here opine that the situation has become more serious in the past one year. They attribute the boom in activities in infrastructure and service sectors, and high-level of literacy in the region for this.

The President of the Kanara Small Industries Association (KSIA), Mr K. Ramachandra Bhat, told Business Line that the units in Baikampady industrial area in Mangalore are facing acute shortage of labourers. The shortage varies from 35 per cent to 50 per cent depending on sectors.

Lack of labourers

Ms Latha R. Kini, President of the Dakshina Kannada District Tiny Industries Association, said that some tiny industrial units are heading towards closure due to the lack of labourers. New workers are hard to come by. "We have to think of retaining the labourers before going in for marketing products," she said.

Mr K. Prakash Rao, President of the Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers' Association (KCMA), said that the cashew-processing industry has lost nearly 20 per cent of the workforce over the years. It is to be noted here that cashew-processing industry employs more women. Unlike other industries, majority of the work in this sector depends on manual labour.

HUGE DEMAND

Ms Kini said that the district requires at least 50,000 `hard-working' employees in the industrial sector and another 50,000 in the informal sector to keep the economy going for the next 10 years.

She said that several major infrastructure projects and the proliferation of service sector units such as malls and hospitals have taken away the major portion of the workforce from the industrial sector.

Mr Bhat, who has a welding electrodes manufacturing unit at Baikampady, said that he finds it difficult to get labourers for night shifts in spite of offering extra night-shift allowances to them.

ATTRITION

Ms Kini, who owns a paint-manufacturing unit, said that it is difficult to get skilled labourers for chemical-based industries such as paint manufacturing units. Some people, who join the sector here, shift to major cities after getting trained. Now some of the units have started recruiting PUC-failed candidates.

Most of the entrepreneurs face the problem of retaining the workforce in the age group of 18 to 22 years. Good wages in infrastructure and services sectors have taken away many young people from small and medium industries, and a good literacy rate in the region has made them look towards other lucrative industries.

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