Job opportunities in manufacturing industries; especially PPE sector

The Indian economy continues to expand in size and according to the Asian Development Bank India’s economy, today is the fastest growing in Asia. As a corollary of rapid economic expansion more jobs are available today than were ever before, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

Most Indian leaders see an increase in the size of the manufacturing sector as a panacea for unemployment and underemployment in the country. Demand in the developed world for manufactured goods has led more than one exporting nation to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty. In spite of the rise in automation, leaders and intellectuals in India believe that a manufacturing-led export-driven growth model is a way to superior economic growth in India.

Industries Are Creating More Jobs than Ever Before
Potentially, within 7 years the size of the manufacturing sector in India may generate revenues of $1 trillion dollars. To put this in perspective the size of the entire Indian economy had been less than $1 trillion dollars a little over 10 years ago. Be it in manufacturing, construction or mining new jobs are being created in India and the pace of new job growth is expected to continue growing. Hence the employment landscape in India is already being transformed into one which generates jobs in relatively higher paying manufacturing industries.

Since the liberalization of the Indian economy in the early 1990’s, a third of the new jobs have been created in the construction sector.

Manufacturing to Pave the Way to Future Prosperity
Manufacturing jobs are jobs that create products by using raw materials or components.
Over the next 5 to 7 years tens of millions of new jobs are expected to be created in the domestic manufacturing sector. Leading Indian economists believe that the manufacturing sector will comprise of a quarter of the size of the Indian economy by 2025. Currently, manufacturing’s share in the Indian economy is approximately 16%. Approximately 9 crore new manufacturing jobs are expected to be created over the next 7 years.

The largest number of manufacturing jobs that will be created may be low paying unskilled or semi-skilled jobs that nonetheless, for innumerable diligent and enterprising young workers, could pay the way for a financially rewarding and personally fulfilling career.
The creation of a large number of such jobs will help move millions of Indians into the middle-class.

High-Value Manufacturing Jobs Exist Today
However what is truly exciting is that a significant number of jobs in India’s manufacturing sector today are prestigious jobs that require much technical expertise which comes after years of education and training. Graduates and mechanical engineers and those with post-graduate degrees today have ample opportunity to thrive in the manufacturing sector in India. An expanding domestic manufacturing sector will lead to the creation of many more such prestigious and well-paying jobs that will be able to employ young Indians for decades to come.

Specifically, there are attractive jobs for engineers and for those with advanced degrees in production management, quality testing, maintenance and R&D. Furthermore today there also many ancillary jobs in areas such as procurement, storage, supply chain, finance and accounting and the availability of such jobs will also increase in the future.

Manufacturing Industries Have Created Tertiary Jobs
Job opportunities in the manufacturing industry today extend beyond simple assembly line manufacturing jobs. Many white collar jobs have been created by the manufacturing industry in tertiary industries such as customer support and management. Much of the demand for skilled engineers, draftsmen, programmers, electricians and technicians is being created by the manufacturing industry in India.

Furthermore, rising consumer expectations have led manufacturers to take quality initiatives and hire production experts who ensure finished products meet quality standards. Indian manufacturers have also realized the need for quick and efficient customer service which has led to the direct creation of numerous support and backend jobs.

PPE’s in Era of Manufacturing Led Growth
As the manufacturing sector expands, even more people will be employed in the innumerable factories and workshops that will manufacture products in India. After the creation of new and varied jobs in hazardous manufacturing environments, the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) will also grow. Already most large and small Indian manufacturers recognize the importance of worker safety and so there is great demand for PPE across India.
The manufacturers of personal protective equipment are themselves, manufacturers. As the number of factories and industries grows in India, the size of the PPE manufacturing sector will also grow.

Manufacturers of safety equipment create safety products that are in great demand by manufacturers and by those in the construction and mining industries.

The buying and selling of safety equipment have also created many new jobs. For the next few decades, the number of jobs created by manufacturers of PPE will increase in lockstep with the increase in the number of manufacturing jobs in India.

Reasons behind Demand for PPE in India
Two of the key drivers behind the expansion of the PPE industry are innovation and the manufacture of technologically advanced PPE. Technologically advanced and innovative PPE is the reason behind a greater demand for PPE products in India. Many new PPE products are also aesthetically well designed which creates greater demand for them as well. It is expected that in the future, PPE that is thoughtfully designed and attractive will be in greater demand.

Behind the manufacture of high-quality PPE are well developed Research and Development centres managed by manufacturers, higher international standards created for PPE, greater collaboration within the industry, higher standards set by regulatory bodies, increase in government initiatives that promote worker safety and greater expertise among manufacturers which allows them to manufacture PPE that is of high quality.

An additional reason that demand for PPE is increasing in India is the still budding domestic e-commerce market which makes it easier for B2B sales between manufacturers and businesses. As businesses can now purchase PPE online, the demand for PPE has grown and is expected to grow further as the Indian e-commerce market grows, as projected, to generate revenues of approximately $700 billion by 2020. Because the e-commerce market in India is still in its infancy, the volume of PPE sales made online are a fraction of their true potential.

Some advantages of buying PPE online are that interested shoppers can freely browse and compare a wide variety of products made by different manufacturers and save valuable time and money. While browsing products online interested shoppers can also see images of the products being sold, understand the specifications of the products and also read reviews of the products before making a buying decision.

As the manufacturing sector in India grows in size so will the demand for an army of labourers, skilled workers and for those with the technical and managerial skills necessary to create world-beating companies. Today nearly 94% of Indian workers are employed in the informal sector. However, as powerful government initiatives, including GST, which attempt to bring more Indian manufacturers within the formal economy, succeed, productivity is expected to increase resulting in an increase in the size of the entire domestic manufacturing sector.