SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Chapter IVing of ‘English Speaking and Personality Development’ classes. Most of these jobs are incentive-based,and continuation of work is subject to performance. Young boys and girls from lower socio-economicbackgrounds, who have lived in cities or small towns, and are educated up to Std X or XII, are ideal fordoing this kind of work.3. Business services, which have grown at over 20 per cent 3 , have been oneof the fastest growing industriesBusiness services engage over a third of the workforce in this sector. A deeper analysis shows that thissegment includes the types of services we see all around us. Around 10 per cent of the workers arewomen. Even as the employment share is higher for this sector, the GDP contribution is only around14 per cent of the total GDP of ‘Financial Services, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Services’. Thispoints to the relatively low productivity, compared with other financial services, real estate, computerrelated activities.Sectors in which livelihoods are increasing include security, maintenance, cleaning, recruitment, and otherssuch. Given the increase in outsourcing of basic services such as these, this segment has high livelihoodpotential. Business services include activities such as labour recruitment and provision of personnel (2.7per cent share of total employment in this sub-sector), security activities (16 per cent), photographicactivities (32 per cent), packaging activities, business brokerage activities, i.e. arranging for the purchaseand sale of small and photostat, secretarial services, which include telephone answering, stenographic,duplicating and mailing etc. engage about 2.6 per cent of the workers in this segment. Services suchas building-cleaning and industrial cleaning activities have a small share of employment at 0.8 per centcurrently. However they are likely to increase at a fast pace.An interesting feature of the employment pattern in this sector is that it is largely in the nature of regularemployment and self-employment, and workers are usually paid regular salaries or wages. There isalmost no casual labour in most of the business services sectors, which have a prominent share, whichis another positive for encouraging livelihoods in this sector.Training for secretarial work such as stenography, telephone operators etc., can be provided easily. Similarlyfor workers in cleaning and maintenance, basic orientation and grooming are good enough. For securityworkers, there are in-house trainings in most security agencies. However, some basic training for use ofarms might be required for senior personnel.The sector withthe highest GDPgrowth between1999 and 2005,Transport,Storage andCommunicationshas grown ataround 14 percent per annum.It ranks secondas per the LPPIof 8.36.While these jobs are mushrooming, there has to be a systematic approach to matching the jobs with thepotential workers. The profiles of persons for different jobs will vary based on the content of the jobsand therefore skills required. In all trades listed here, the task of linking with the job-market is crucial.Just training more and more workers to become typists does not necessarily ensure a better livelihoodfor them. A clear market identification exercise should be undertaken and based on that people shouldbe trained.4. With enhanced focus on infrastructure growth, the transport sector has togrow, and there will be an increasing demand for workers in this sector.The sector with the highest GDP growth between 1999 and 2005, Transport, Storage and Communicationshas grown at around 14 per cent per annum. It ranks second as per the LPPI of 8.36. Withinthis sector, the highest GDP share is that of road transport (60 per cent), followed by communications(25 per cent). The employment pattern is even more skewed with road transport employing over 843Banga 200684