I picked-up Gautam Das’s “Jobonomics” at an airport back in 2019, at a time I was deep into studying blue-collar workforce dynamics. I was surprised by what I found inside it!

Goutam Das, currently with the Mint, he was a senior editor at Business Today. He is known for his reportage around employment and man-machine conflicts & has won several awards.

It was one of those “never-judge-a-book-by-it’s-cover” books! Written like a story by Das, it’s rich with data and facts, and yet not boring. You want to turn the page quick to know more.

India’s economy is growing at a steady clip of 6-7% a year, job creation has fallen far short of the growing population. And then again, most who are employed are in jobs that don’t pay well or are not aligned to their skills and or education. Yet, this is not just a crisis of productivity and skills, but the speed of employment generation versus the population growth – threatening the demographic dividend we are supposed to reap.

Das brings alive real characters from India’s job market and builds a compelling read of factors that stifle growth and how that impacts at multiple levels. Why are Indian companies  not creating enough jobs? Why do small companies remain small? Will robots take over today’s transactional jobs? Why have successive governments failed in their attempts / promises to create jobs that pay well? The book explores these questions and more, in an engaging narrative that documents the real stories of workers of all shades across India, from Tirupur in Tamil Nadu to Gurugram in Haryana, highlighting the social and political consequences of unemployment and underemployment.

Das’s well-researched book highlights, various bottlenecks in Indian enterprises from inability or lack of intent to raise funds, acquire managerial talent, find skilled workers, etc.

And there are systemic bottlenecks related to inefficiency of the Indian system – from the judicial system to deliver verdicts and resolve pending cases related to corporates, to the web of labour laws and the multiple enforcement agencies that can entangle a business to taxation. As you read this book, you shall even more deeply relate to what Manish Sabharwal (Chairman of Team Lease) calls “regulatory cholesterol”.

At an individual worker level being unskilled or semi-skilled, is a clear danger signal for the future as better & more hi-tech machinery gets deployed in factories & construction sites alike. The quality of primary education that the poor can afford in India sets a shaky foundation for most.

All these restrict the agility & resilience of small Indian businesses.  Hence, their ability to survive & grow and generate employment.

Das covers primary education, health, reserved quotas to BPOs, Robots & Gig workers. The book is so rich in anecdotes, eye-opening data, and hard-hitting future trends that I had something to highlight or page-mark in virtually every page.

There’s amazing human potential, ambition, hard-work, grit, and dreams in India’s 400 million bottom-of-the-pyramid workforce that we need to tap into!  Read on…

Sanchayan Paul

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanchayanpaul/

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