Approximately 60,000 direct jobs in mobile phone manufacturing are likely to be created in India in the next 6-12 months to cater to the manpower demands of leading device makers as the country becomes the second largest producer of handsets in the world, reports The Economic Times, citing estimates by staffing firms based on hiring demand. Teamlease Services currently has more than 5,000 open positions in mobile manufacturing with more in the pipeline, said Kartik Narayan, chief executive, staffing.

“We are expecting 40,000-60,000 direct jobs in phone manufacturing pan India by March 2024,” said Narayan. “India has over 200 mobile manufacturing units. It is the second largest mobile manufacturer in volume terms. This is leading to a huge demand for manpower.” Ciel HR Services has about 2,000 open positions with more demand coming in, said CEO Aditya Narayan Mishra.

In addition to this, another 80,000-100,000 indirect jobs are likely to be created over the next 12-24 months, as leading mobile brands and their component manufacturing and assembly partners, who already have or are looking to set up some form of manufacturing in India, are ramping up hiring. India is likely to manufacture about 270-300 million handsets this calendar year, driven by the government’s push to turn India into an manufacturing hub and a global shift to manufacture beyond China, according to industry estimates.

Alok Kumar, president, ManpowerGroup India, said, “We see the need for talent increasing going ahead with demand coming in from the existing units of global manufacturing companies in India as well as the new manufacturing mega facilities being set up in regions like the NCR and southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.”