TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: A National Skills Development Corporation study has pointed out a major shortfall in the workforce of almost 80,000 compared to the 1,00,000 jobs that will be created in the state in the next five years.
Goa, the country’s richest state with a per capita GDP two and a half times that of the country and which was ranked the best in terms of infrastructure by the XI Finance Commission and topped the states for best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators has a very high attrition rate – probably double digit above the Indian average.
It is also highly urbanized and men constitute 72% of the registered workforce while women constitute only 28 per cent. This is higher than the national average (Economic Survey 2003-2004). The urban population in the last 10 years has increased by 35.15 percent.
But given that the educational profile of men and women in Goa are similar, this gap in workforce profile is therefore difficult to fathom and needs serious policy redress, the study observes.
According to estimates the Hospitality industry has the highest employability – almost 35% – while manufacturing employs between between 10-15%. But the pharma industry employability rate is less as the salaries are higher.
At the interaction after the presentation of the findings of the study it was pointed out that 10-12 dropout rate has to be addressed as well as the large scale migration that is happening in Goa. NSDC MD Dilip Chendy, director, Craftsmen Training Aleixo da costa and CII members including its president Atul Pai Kane were present at the interaction.
According to the study mining and quarrying employ 18% of the workforce and its contribution is to the extent of 7% of the economy. Similarly, trade, hotels and restaurants which employ 10% of the workforce contribute 8% to the economy. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing which employ 18% of the workforce contributes 6% to the economy and manufacturing which contributes 27% to the economy employs only 15% of the workforce.
Also Tourism is Goa’s primary industry and the state handles 12% of all foreign tourist arrivals in India though Goa economy depends on the Agricultural, Industrial, Mining and Tourism sectors.
At constant price (2004-05), the growth rate of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) over its previous year shows that the economy which grew at 10.02 percent in the beginning of the Eleventh Plan i.e. in 2006-07, dropped to a 5.54 percent of Growth rate in the first year of the Eleventh Plan and thereafter stabilized at around 10 percent in the next three years.
However, as per the estimates of GSDP for 2011-12, the growth rate dropped to 8.94 percent in the last year of the Eleventh Plan i.e. 2011-12. Also, the primary sector registered a growth rate of (-) 2.52 percent as compared to a growth rate of (-) 3.15 percent in 2010-11.
This is attributed to the negative growth rate under mining sector, which is a sub-sector under the primary sector. Secondary sector also registered a steep decline in its growth rate from 11.55 percent in 2010-11 to 5.84 percent in 2011-12. This decline in the growth rate is witnessed in all the sub-sectors of the secondary sector. Tertiary sector which has registered a growth rate of 12.39 percent in 2010-11 witnessed an increase in its growth rate to 13.85%. Sector-wise composition of GSDP at constant (2004-05) prices show that tertiary sector accounted for 52.24percent of the GSDP followed by secondary sector with 38.05 percent and primary sector with 9.70 percent.
Industry wise skills are classified into four broad categories viz. highly skilled, skilled, semi skilled and minimally skilled depending on the nature and duration of the training and education received and the current training/higher education capacities are categorized to match the four levels.
