The rise of blue collar economy in india 2022
The rise of blue collar economy in India - 2022
Sep 12, 2022
Imagine waking up to a world where food delivery, getting cabs to work, customer care helpdesks, warehousing and janitorial tasks are alienated concepts.
It is practically impossible to even consider this possibility in fiction in India. From the miles delivery executive that delivers food at our doorstep to the plumber who helps with fixtures and repairs, blue-grey collar workforce in India is an essential functioning arm of the society.
In the recent years, the blue collar sector has seen exponential growth in India. When the covid-19 pandemic struck the country, some blue-grey collar jobs saw an upward incline.
Ajay Singh, Senior Vice President, Quess Corp shared his views on the subject and here’s what he had to say “We are seeing an unprecedented increase in fresh job vacancies in blue and grey collar segment in the current quarter”.
Amongst the many reasons for this shift, tech advancements, digital transformation, and expansion to newer geographical contribute majorly to the cause. In fact, Quess’ online staffing platform for blue-collar jobs – Qjobs saw almost 2M+ active job postings in India in 2022. Almost a 50% growth from the previous year.
Let us take a look which jobs fall under the blue-collar in India, emerging job roles, salary bracket, and more.
Jobs falling under the blue-collar in India
Almost 400M+ workers make a strong blue collar workforce in India. What we mean when we say blue collar workforce – a regime where people are paid on an hourly basis, and indulge in labour intensive activities such as construction, catering, maintenance, and the likes.
Staff from facilities management, housekeeping, maintenance, construction, mining, landscaping, event support, concierge support, home care, and healthcare fall under the blue collar workforce in India.Read more...
Apart from these, some of the emerging sectors where the blue collar workforce is in demand are:
Automotive
Ecommerce
Quick commerce
Fin-tech
Health-tech
BPOs
Data management
BFSI
Sectors having the highest demand for blue collar jobs in India
There has been 73% sequential growth in demand for blue and grey collar jobs in India in January-March 2022. Some of the Indian cities bearing witness to this expanding demand are - New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai,Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Indore.
The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry tops the list of sectors witnessing the highest demand for blue-collar jobs in India in 2022. Due to the pandemic, people had limited access to visit banks, service centers, offices, shops, government institutions, etc. This forced majority business owners to hire professionals for customer support and helpdesk. Which in turn, led to increased hiring in the BPO industry in India.
While that was the case as the country was coping with covid-19, the case for revival paints a larger picture for other jobs in demand. Data entry operators, customer care executives, accounts payable clerks, and sales representatives were some of the most hired professionals between 2019 and 2022.
Some sectors that have recorded higher demand for blue-collar manpower post covid-19 are:
Retail
Construction
BFSI
Pharmaceuticals
Sales & Marketing
Data mining
Healthcare
FMCG
Logistics
Information Technology (IT)
Emerging blue collar jobs in India
Sekha Garissa, Chief of Emerging Businesses and Corporate Development at Quess Corp commented “Across the board, almost every organisation is going for expansion. Companies that had deferred their expansion plan have revived them. Offices are opening up and across sectors services are restarting. This coupled with rising attrition is leading to a surge in demand,” when asked about the emerging blue collar jobs in India.
This resonates with the reality to a T. Take any quick commerce platform as an example. The 10-minute delivery trend has caught up with the industry. Companies are hiring miles delivery executives, warehouse managers, IT professionals, and more to stabilize operations in Tier 2 & 3 cities.
Not only quick commerce, but health-tech and healthcare industries are also witnessing an upsurge. Nurses, admin staff, receptionists, pharmacists, and healthcare managers are in demand job roles.
Let’s look at the top 15 emerging blue collar job roles in India in 2022:
Security guards
Car and delivery drivers
Field sales executives
Nurses
Receptionists
Counter sales executives
Admin staff
Janitors
Electricians
Pharmacists
Warehouse workers
Defense personnel
Food handlers
Disinfectant specialists
“The significant improvement in confidence among companies to expand business operations has led to an increase in hiring across job categories. With major players in the market transitioning back to work-from-office, the market is looking at an optimistic business outlook for months to come” Ajay Singh added.
Salary bracket of blue collar jobs in India
Salaries of blue-collar workers vary from locality, city, state, and region in India. What you pay a plumber in New Delhi will be very different from what the industry standard is in Bangalore.
We went to our teams across Quess and got a median salary for five blue-collar professionals in India. These salaries are subjective and not set in stone.
1. Drivers
The median salary for personal drivers can range from 1.2 LPA to 2.0 LPA for a usual 8-hour shift. For corporate drivers, the range is slightly more at 1.5 LPA to 2.5 LPA for the same hours.
Cab drivers have to spare a percentage of their earnings with the aggregators. So, the median salary range for cab drivers in India can be between 1.5 LPA to 3.0 LPA, depending on the arrangement with third-party vendors.
2. Caretakers
The median salary for caretakers in India can range from 1.8 LPA to 2.5 LPA for a 12-hour shift, depending upon their experience or education. Generally, caretakers can provide support to babies, toddlers, children, and elderly persons.
These caretakers can be individual contributors or affiliated with an educational or health institution.
3. Nurses
The healthcare sector has seen the most strides in the last two years. Nurses have contributed incredibly to healthcare, and so, it has become the highest, in-demand blue-collar job in 2022.
The salary median of a registered nurse ranges between 2.5 LPA to 4.0 LPA in India. This bracket depends on their experience and education. The profile of a nurse range from staff nurse, home nurse, OT nurse, ICU/CCU nurse, nursing supervisor, nurse manager, and nursing director. The nursing director can make as high as 12.0 LPA.
4. Miles delivery executive
These are everyday delivery executives that come to deliver items at our doorstep. Ecommerce, quick services, courier, and other industries get support from these executives to service customers.
A miles delivery executive’s median salary in India can range from 2.5 LPA to 3.75 LPA. This is highly dependent on the number of tasks an executive completes. These executives are paid monthly rather than hourly or weekly.
5. Disinfectant specialists
As the name suggests, these professionals are specialists in disinfecting an office or home space according to prerequisites. In a post-pandemic world, disinfectant specialists are high in-demand.
The median salary of a disinfectant specialist ranges anywhere between 1.8 LPA to 3.3 LPA. For home cleaners, it might be slightly lesser than corporate cleaners. However, it depends from provider to provider.
Conclusion
The job market in India is at its most uncertain point. The continuous layoffs either indicate a rationalization of staff within an organisation or the preparedness for a financial blow. However, with the numbers projected every day, the blue-grey collar job market is estimated to grow in the coming years.
Quess’ digital hiring platform for gig workers – Qjobs is helping enterprises source high quality blue-grey collar associates to meet business requirements. It facilitates hiring for roles across Sales & Retail, BPO & Telecalling, Delivery & Driving, IT & Technology, Logistics & Warehouse, Office & Admin, Security, Engineering, and Construction & Utility.
