Coimbatore :More Jobs and Labour Shortage

Despite having a number of engineering colleges and technical institutes, this major industrial belt of Tamil Nadu is facing an acute labour shortage, be it in manufacturing sector, textiles or foundry.


The region, particularly in and around Coimbatore, is known for textile mills, pump and motors and castings. However, production in these sectors was hit at least 10 to 20 per cent due to non-availability of labour, particularly skilled ones, industrialists say.


According to C R Swaminathan, chief executive of a leading technological institute in the city and a foundry owner, a large number of foundry units here have doubled their capacity to cater to the needs of auto-component makers.


However, the units were managing three shifts with skeletal staff, since labourers, especially skilled ones, were not available affecting production. Though women can be utilised for general works, it would be difficult for them to lift heavy castings, Swaminathan said.


There was a requirement of 10,000 labourers as of now in the sector, he added.


The situation is no different in textile and motor and pumps sectors also, Jayakumar Ramdoss, chairman of CII, Coimbatore zone, and one of the leading pump manufactures, said.


Though Southern India Mills Association has started a cell for employment, the number of aspirants was not that encouraging, Jayakumar said.


Various industrial associations have submitted lists of requirements and type of labour to the district collector Neeraj Mittal, who has written to them based on the applications he was receiving every week, Jayakumar said.


However, more than 35 per cent of the job seekers have either crossed 50 years or not willing to do such works as they wanted "decent pay at the start itself and only white collar jobs", he said.


Some graduates prefer to sit idle than taking up jobs for Rs 3,000 or Rs 4,000 to start with or at least to gain experience, he said.


A majority of the job seekers appear to be waiting for the commissioning of the Tidel Park, coming up in the city.


As many of the fresh engineers passing out from the city colleges were rushing to Bangalore and Chennai for jobs of more than Rs 15,000 in the first month, others were also pinning hope on IT sector, which was yet to reach its peak here, Jayakumar said.


However, a recent report of a large number of resignations of staff from call centres, particularly in Bangalore, due to overstress working in the nights, has somewhat helped in applying brakes to the rush in seeking jobs in the sector, Swaminathan said.


But this should shift to other sector, which was feeling the pinch of labour shortage, he added.
Source: Chennai Online