Manish Kumar, 22, from Gurgaon is no mall-rat. But this class 12 drop-out still likes to frequent malls to look for job openings.
Kumar is excited about his upcoming job as sales assistant in the swanky mall.
This is his third job in less than a year.
With malls mushrooming across the country, many like Kumar are hopping jobs in search of better compensation.
The retail industry today is seeing a jobs boom, the likes of which, was seen in the IT/ITES segment a decade ago.
According to industry analysts, “On a conservative estimate, about 7-10 million jobs will be added by 2015 across the board.”.
The retail sector currently employs about 30-35 million people.
With the Committee of Secretaries giving a nod to opening up of the retail sector, analysts say the sector is likely to only witness a further upswing.
According to Mr Richie Madan, Executive Director, Elixir Consulting, a Recruitment Process Outsourcing company, “FDI in retail will not only generate jobs in the sector but also in the related areas like real estate, bank and construction. The growth will be seen in tier-1 cities and would also extend to tier-II and-III towns.”
Hiring will be maximum in front-end and back-end operations, store operations, merchandising, logistics and distributions, marketing, procurement/purchase and corporate services.
The current functional distribution of employment in retail is 85-80 per cent in store operations, 5-8 per cent in merchandising and marketing and 10-15 per cent in other spheres.
To meet the surging demand, several retail biggies are opening institutes.
Bharti Walmart, for example, has its own training institutes in Punjab and Delhi to meet its captive demand.
Similarly, Raheja-led Hypercity has initiated classroom training for retail along with education firm ITM group.
Mr Mark Ashman, CEO, Hypercity, said, “The logic behind designing a structured programme with the help of ITM is to develop young professionals who have had a chance to get hands on experience.”