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Job market: Top six skills that will be much sought-after

With the installation of the new government at the Centre, hopes of a speedy economic revival have led to expectations that employment will get a boost, especially in sectors such as infrastructure, manufacturing and defence. Experts caution, though, that the coming boom will benefit only those who possess the relevant skills.

According to staffing consultancy Kelly Services, overall demand for skills in areas and functions such as sales and marketing, mobile technology, analytics in information technology (IT), relationship managers in banking, and R&D is likely to grow 10-15% in 2014 compared to the previous year. The new economy sectors of IT, business intelligence and data, and ecommerce have been witnessing a surge over the past few months.

The financial services industry has received a push from reforms and new licences while consumer durables and automobile sectors are likely to pick up if the positive sentiment translates into increased purchasing power. Aviation, too, may see an uptick in demand with the arrival of new carriers.

Technology skills are expected to be in demand across sectors while offers are likely to pour in for civil engineers, accountants, people managers and sales experts. Here is a look at the top six skills that are likely to command apremium over the next few quarters.

Business intelligence and data analytics skills:A data scientist, or someone with expertise in analytics, commands an annual salary of Rs 15-20 lakh after an experience of 2-3 years.

"Some of these guys make as much as highly successful lawyers and doctors, and they would rank number one in terms of skills demand," says Subeer Bakshi, director, Talent & Rewards, Towers Watson. This category includes data warehousing and business intelligence (DWBI) designers as well as professionals with experience in software frameworks such as Hadoop.

IT, software development and e-commerce: "Technology and digital marketing-related skills are in huge demand as e-commerce companies have got big-ticket investments," says Asim Handa, CEO, Gi Group India. E-commerce jobs, according to him, may see a growth of 18-20% in 2014 compared with the previous year. Domestic consumption of technology, especially in mobile telephony, is on the rise.

The traditional IT services sector is likely to see a spurt in hiring as demand revives in Europe, along with expected economic turnaround at home. According to Teamlease, this category will provide opportunities to a wide range of people, beginning with IT infrastructure managers, mobile developers on IOS, Android and Windows, and those with knowhow of languages like Python, Ruby on Rails, HTML, and CSS, to IT security and cloud computing professionals.

Project management and civil engineering for heavy industries: Owing to the government′s focus on infrastructure and power, project managers with experience or certification in these sectors will be in high demand.

This will also help people with expertise in urban planning, civil engineering, water resource management, etc. The power sector may also seek in large numbers piping engineers, lead engineers, unit control engineers, safety engineers and utility engineers, besides people with experience in desk operations or field operations, or as site in-charge or shift in-charge.

Sales and marketing skills: Sales and marketing skills are likely to be in demand across sectors, but particularly in consumer goods and financial services. Sales will assume great importance if the general positive sentiment converts to tangible growth. This will be across levels of the function, but with higher requirement in the lower rungs.

"There may be a variety of job titles such as sales representative, sales executive, sales advisor, or salesperson," says Srikanth Rengarajan, executive director and president, ManpowerGroup India.

Banking, accounting and finance: This sector has been slow in hiring, but with two new banking licences already issued by the Reserve Bank of India, and more in the pipeline, bankers will be in high demand in roles including relationship managers, branch managers, investment bankers, certified accountants as well as junior staff.

Customer servicing and people management: "We can expect to see an increase in demand for customer representatives and human resource professionals across industries as companies try to capitalise on the improving economic climate," says Moorthy K Uppaluri, CEO, Randstad India.

With the expected surge in hiring, those with a combined proficiency in managing people, business partnering and facing clients are likely to be in high demand. According to a report by Teamlease, a large number of opportunities may arise in education for programme coordinators, admissions representatives, teachers and faculty, assistant professors and student service advisors. Besides, R&D professionals will be needed in health care, chemicals, automobiles and manufacturing sectors.

Analysts, however, caution that the optimism in the job market is based on sentiment and it may take at least three quarters for any meaningful change in the economy. "Some of the hiring is more due to sentiment and expectations of macroeconomic change than hard data of economic change," says Kamal Karanth, managing director-India & Malaysia, Kelly Services.