Real Estate To Be Among The Biggest Job Providing Sectors: Assocham

For the time being, activity in the real estate sector has been scaled down. Developers are busy reading the fine prints of the new law—the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016, and the Goods and Services Tax---to make themselves compliant. The number of new project launches is going to go down in the coming future. But, make no mistake. The tremendous pressure that the real estate sector has been facing in the past couple of years cannot negate the fact that it happens to be the second-biggest job provider in India after agriculture. Findings of a research report show this trend is going to continue. In fact, along with organised retail, health and wellness and transport, the sector would create the most number of jobs the coming five years, says the Assocham-Thought Arbitrage Research Institute Paper.  

Considering the employment base of 45.4 million in 2013, the building, construction and real estate (including infrastructure) would require 31.1 million incremental human resources, says the paper.

"The sector has been the worst-hit because of multiple factors, including high-level debts and non-performing assets, delays in delivery of housing projects, and environmental and regulatory hurdles. We need to get these issues out of the way in a manner that it becomes a robust engine of job creation and economic growth," Assocham Secretary-General D S Rawat said.

Earlier, a report by the Labour Bureau showed that real estate developers recruited 1,000 casual workers during October and December last year. Owing to the impact of demonetisation, most sectors cut jobs during that period while the construction sector remained an exception.

Pointing out the difficulties faced by the information technology sector, the paper said: "The IT and ITeS, which is under pressure at present, in any case, was to expand at lesser pace in job creation. On the employment base of 3.3 million in 2013, the much-touted sector had an incremental human resource requirement of 2.2 million by 2022, of which about one million have been added in the past three-four years."

At a time like this, the role of real estate as a job provider will go only more significant.  "A country that requires at least 15-20 million jobs a year, we need to look quite broader, and (look) at those areas which expand not only in the export market but also within the country," said Rawat. One could not agree more with the Assocham secretary-general. One could always rely on real estate.

Also read: Developers Hired 1,000 Casual Workers After Demonetisation: Govt Survey