The MSME Promotion Council Vice Chairman Dr C Suresh expressed concern about the future of employment opportunities presented by a new study from the World Economic Forum (WEF). This report has indicated that, in the next 5 years, the Indian job market is set to witness a 22% churn. This is quite extraordinary, since the global churn is estimated at 23%. The top emerging roles, as per this, will be related to AI, machine learning and data segments.

This report also suggests that a huge chunk of companies believe adopting new technologies and broadening digital access is the best way to expand job growth. So, the MSME sector too is bound to benefit from investing this way.

The report also found that the education and agriculture industry is set to witness the largest absolute gains in job creation. This is, indeed, great news for the MSMEs that operate in these industries, especially those that work with agricultural equipment operations, graders and sorters.

Thus, the government must aid the MSME sector in investing in education, reskilling and social support structures that can safeguard their futures in the creation of new jobs.

But this is not to say that some jobs are not witnessing a decline. Nevertheless, refocusing the skills of such sectors to aid the technological expansion of the MSME industry could certainly work miracles.