More than half of India’s business houses are finding it harder to recruit people with the skills they need according to a survey by the International Labour Organisation.

In a report titled `Changing business and opportunities for employers and business organizations’ the ILO said, “Globally, employers and businesses are increasingly encountering challenges in locating, hiring and retaining talent. However, skills requirements and ease of recruiting varies widely across regions, defying any obvious patterns of developed versus emerging economy.”

“A large proportion of businesses in the United States of America (61 per cent), Brazil (70 per cent), India (66 per cent) and Germany (65 per cent) agreed that businesses are looking for quite different skills in new recruits than three years ago,” the report said.

In India, 53 per cent of the businesses surveyed also said that it is becoming harder to recruit people with the skills needed, the report added.

Explaining the reason for this mismatch, the ILO report said that education systems are partially responsible for the dearth of capable and skilled workers.

“Many countries feature educational systems that are poorly equipped to adapt to changes in the workplace, whether due to inaction in policy, a lack of funding, lack of coordination with the private sector or other factors. This resonates strongly with businesses, with 78 per cent of executives indicating that updating the school and education curriculum to match the economy’s needs would provide them with the skilled employees they need,” the report said.

The report also said that there is considerable scope for automation affecting the nature the jobs and businesses. “Businesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America reported that automation has already affected low skilled jobs, with 53 per cent, 49 per cent and 47 per cent of executives respectively saying they have already experienced a noticeable impact,” the ILO report said.

The potential for automation is the highest in Japan where 55.7 per cent of the work activities could be automated by adapting current technology. In India, survey respondents feel that 51.8 per cent of the work can be automated.

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