India has a big advantage over China in the global labour market as its young and English-speaking workforce is much more relevant on the global level, as per leading human resource consultancy giant Manpower Group.
However, the Indian government and companies need to focus on understanding the skill sets they would need in the future and train the country's young population accordingly to maintain the supply-demand balance of the job market, Manpower Group President (Global Corporate and Government Affairs) David Arkless told PTI in an interview here.
Arkless, who was here to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, maintained that he remains optimistic about the Indian labour market, although the conditions remain volatile and uncertain globally.
Asked about the Indian labour market, Arkless said, "India is not a typical emerging market economy. It is a very specific talent market and Indian economy operates totally differently from Chinese or any other emerging market or global growth economy. In terms of human capital benefit, India has highly literate and very driven young people."
Arkless, however, rued the fact that many of the long-running problems such as infrastructure still remain. As a result, people are leaving for big cities from rural areas, which is the case for China as well, he added.
"Overall, I am very optimistic about the Indian labour market. India is still producing big numbers of graduates," he said, but added that a majority of them are not appropriately skilled for the growth sectors of Indian economy.
"There are lots of people who graduate in India and then take up jobs that have nothing to do with their academic subjects. There are doctors getting into IT and engineers going into services. The politicians and business leaders of the country should understand that India could benefit a lot from a much better forensic forecast of skill requirements in different sectors and different geographies," he said.
"There is a need to synchronise the supply and demand of the labour market. I think India needs to move much faster in being scientific about the workforce," he added.
"The danger is you need to be very competitive at the global level. The danger is that some other countries like China and Indonesia are moving ahead in that synchronisation of supply and demand," he said.
Akrless, however, said that these problems were there to some extend in other countries as well.