Skill, Labour, Talent for MSMEs: The number of job seekers registered on the Modi government’s portal to help small businesses hire skilled youth — MSME Sampark — has jumped a whopping 779 per cent even as the increase in the number of recruiters was only 10 per cent in a little over the past 12-month period. The portal had 4,68,804 job seekers and 5,951 recruiters, according to the data available with MSME Sampark as of January 20, 2021. This was up from 53,295 job seekers and 5,397 recruiters as of December 31, 2019, according to the FY20 annual report of the MSME Ministry. Importantly, the number of candidates placed via portal had increased 170 per cent in around two months’ time from 10,388 candidates as of November 17, 2020, to 28,029 candidates so far.
Financial Express Online had in November last year reported that the overall placements had translated into around 358 candidates placed every month on an average since the launch of the portal by the President Ram Nath Kovind in June 2018. The jump in the number of candidates placed takes the per month average to 904 candidates. However, the number of vacancies listed on the portal was 819 only for 4.68 lakh job seekers.
MSME Sampark allows trainees and students passed out from the 18 MSME Technology Centres across the country and recruiters including national and multinational firms to connect for hiring and manpower needs, similar to Naukri.com or any other job search portal. According to the portal, the technology centres offer training to around 1.5 lakh students annually and most of them are absorbed by industry in the country as well as abroad.
As per the National Sample Survey (NSS) 73rd round conducted during 2015-16, the MSME sector has created 11.10 crore jobs (360.41 lakh in the manufacturing sector, 7,000 in non-captive electricity generation and transmission sector, 387.18 lakh in trade, and 362.22 lakh in other services) in the rural and the urban areas across the country, as cited by the ministry’s annual FY20 report. The micro sector, which accounts for 6.3 crore units in the MSME sector, provided employment to 10.76 crore people — around 97 per cent of total MSME employment followed by 31.95 lakh (2.88 per cent) and 1.75 lakh (0.16 per cent) people employed with small and medium sector respectively.
