Logistics sector to create 3 m new jobs over next 4 yrs: Report

The logistics sector in India is likely to create 3 million new jobs over the next four years largely driven by GST implementation and significant investment in infrastructure says a TeamLease report.

According to the report, seven sub-sectors -- road freight, rail freight, warehousing, waterways, air freight, packaging and courier services -- are likely to result in 3 million new jobs, upping the employment numbers in the sector from 10.9 million at present to 13.9 million by 2022.

The report titled 'Indian Logistics Revolution - Big Bets, Big Jobs', noted that 1.89 million incremental jobs are likely to be created in the Road Freight, while the Rail Freight sub-sector will create 40,000 incremental jobs, Air Freight will create 400,000 incremental jobs, and Waterways will create 450,000 incremental jobs.

Some of the growth drivers for this sector include a public investment of Rs 6 lakh crore, infrastructure status accorded to the logistics sector in 2017, GST implementation as this would formalise the sector and bring in operational efficiency.

The report, however, noted that "technology is having a profound impact on the logistics sector making certain skills redundant, forcing the aggregation of some other skills and eliminating certain jobs at the lower end of the hierarchy".

"Logistics sector is going through an exciting phase with a number of public investments in line. All of these changes alongside the interplay of sector demand – from Manufacturing, FMCG / FMCD Retail and E-commerce – and technology will not only create innumerable jobs but also metamorphose the skills landscape for logistics," Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-founder & EVP, TeamLease Services told reporters here.

Key government initiatives like Bharatmala Pariyojana and National Highway Development Project (NHDP) will help in creating the maximum number of jobs across road freight. Initiatives like Sagarmala Pariyojna and New National Waterways will be the key factors in creating jobs in water freight.

Mumbai, Delhi- NCR, Pune, and Ahmedabad are a few regions that will be benefitted the maximum through these initiatives thereby creating the maximum number of jobs in Road freight, while Allahabad, Ahmadabad, Chennai and Guwahati will create the maximum jobs in waterways.